Model Comparison

GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)Which is better in 2026?

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) — which is better?

GPT-3.5 Turbo (by OpenAI) and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) (by Mistral AI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

GPT-3.5 Turbo outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU). Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose GPT-3.5 Turbo if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.50/M input and $1.50/M output

Choose Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

GPT-3.5 Turbo outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU).

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only GPT-3.5 Turbo specifies input context (16,385 tokens). Only GPT-3.5 Turbo specifies output context (4,096 tokens).

OpenAI
GPT-3.5 Turbo
Input16,385 tokens
Output4,096 tokens
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) supports multimodal inputs, whereas GPT-3.5 Turbo does not.

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

GPT-3.5 Turbo is licensed under a proprietary license, while Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Proprietary

Closed source

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

GPT-3.5 Turbo was released on 2023-03-21, while Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) was released on 2025-12-04.

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) is 33 months newer than GPT-3.5 Turbo.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Mar 21, 2023

3.3 years ago

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

7 months ago

2.7yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

GPT-3.5 Turbo has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2021-09-30, while Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)'s cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm GPT-3.5 Turbo's training data extends to 2021-09-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)'s cutoff date.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Sep 2021

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)

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Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

OpenAI
Larger context window (16,385 tokens)
Mistral AI
Supports multimodal inputs
Has open weights
Higher MMLU score (70.7% vs 69.8%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against GPT-3.5 Turbo and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

GPT-3.5 Turbo
✓ Preferred
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
OpenAI
GPT-3.5 Turbo
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)

FAQ

Common questions about GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512).

Which is better, GPT-3.5 Turbo or Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)?

Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. GPT-3.5 Turbo is made by OpenAI and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does GPT-3.5 Turbo compare to Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) in benchmarks?

GPT-3.5 Turbo scores DROP: 70.2%, MMLU: 69.8%, HumanEval: 68.0%, MGSM: 56.3%, MATH: 43.1%. Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) scores MMLU-Redux: 73.5%, MMLU: 70.7%, Multilingual MMLU: 65.2%, MATH (CoT): 60.1%, TriviaQA: 59.2%.

What are the context window sizes for GPT-3.5 Turbo and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)?

GPT-3.5 Turbo supports 16K tokens and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between GPT-3.5 Turbo and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes GPT-3.5 Turbo and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)?

GPT-3.5 Turbo is developed by OpenAI and Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) is developed by Mistral AI.

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