Model Comparison

GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Pixtral-12B

Pixtral-12B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Pixtral-12B is 5.0x cheaper per token.

Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

5 benchmarks

GPT-3.5 Turbo outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMLU), while Pixtral-12B is better at 4 benchmarks (HumanEval, MATH, MathVista, MMMU).

Pixtral-12B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Apr 05 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Pixtral-12B costs less

For input processing, GPT-3.5 Turbo ($0.50/1M tokens) is 3.3x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, GPT-3.5 Turbo ($1.50/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).

In conclusion, GPT-3.5 Turbo is more expensive than Pixtral-12B.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Sun Apr 05 2026 • llm-stats.com
OpenAI
GPT-3.5 Turbo
Input tokens$0.50
Output tokens$1.50
Best providerAzure
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.15
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Pixtral-12B accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to GPT-3.5 Turbo's 16,385 tokens. Pixtral-12B can generate longer responses up to 8,192 tokens, while GPT-3.5 Turbo is limited to 4,096 tokens.

OpenAI
GPT-3.5 Turbo
Input16,385 tokens
Output4,096 tokens
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Sun Apr 05 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Pixtral-12B supports multimodal inputs, whereas GPT-3.5 Turbo does not.

Pixtral-12B 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

Pixtral-12B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

GPT-3.5 Turbo is licensed under a proprietary license, while Pixtral-12B 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

Pixtral-12B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

GPT-3.5 Turbo was released on 2023-03-21, while Pixtral-12B was released on 2024-09-17.

Pixtral-12B is 18 months newer than GPT-3.5 Turbo.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Mar 21, 2023

3.0 years ago

Pixtral-12B

Sep 17, 2024

1.5 years ago

1.5yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

GPT-3.5 Turbo has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2021-09-30, while Pixtral-12B'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 Pixtral-12B's cutoff date.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

Sep 2021

Pixtral-12B

—

Provider Availability

GPT-3.5 Turbo is available from Azure, OpenAI. Pixtral-12B is available from Mistral AI.

GPT-3.5 Turbo

azure logo
Azure
Input Price:Input: $0.50/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M
openai logo
OpenAI
Input Price:Input: $0.50/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M

Pixtral-12B

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

OpenAI
Higher MMLU score (69.8% vs 69.2%)
Mistral AI
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights
Higher HumanEval score (72.0% vs 68.0%)
Higher MATH score (48.1% vs 43.1%)
Higher MathVista score (58.0% vs 0.0%)
Higher MMMU score (52.5% vs 0.0%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
OpenAI
GPT-3.5 Turbo
Mistral AI
Pixtral-12B

FAQ

Common questions about GPT-3.5 Turbo vs Pixtral-12B

Pixtral-12B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. GPT-3.5 Turbo is made by OpenAI and Pixtral-12B is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.
GPT-3.5 Turbo scores DROP: 70.2%, MMLU: 69.8%, HumanEval: 68.0%, MGSM: 56.3%, MATH: 43.1%. Pixtral-12B scores DocVQA: 90.7%, ChartQA: 81.8%, VQAv2: 78.6%, MT-Bench: 76.8%, HumanEval: 72.0%.
Pixtral-12B is 3.3x cheaper for input tokens. GPT-3.5 Turbo costs $0.50/M input and $1.50/M output via azure. Pixtral-12B costs $0.15/M input and $0.15/M output via mistral.
GPT-3.5 Turbo supports 16K tokens and Pixtral-12B supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.
Key differences include context window (16K vs 128K), input pricing ($0.50 vs $0.15/M), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
GPT-3.5 Turbo is developed by OpenAI and Pixtral-12B is developed by Mistral AI.