Model Comparison

Ministral 8B Instruct vs o4-miniWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing Ministral 8B Instruct and o4-mini across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Ministral 8B Instruct vs o4-mini — which is better?

Ministral 8B Instruct (by Mistral AI) and o4-mini (by OpenAI) 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.

On price, Ministral 8B Instruct is roughly 19.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

o4-mini also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Choose Ministral 8B Instruct if…

  • cost matters — it's about 19.3x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose o4-mini if…

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Ministral 8B Instruct and o4-minidon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Ministral 8B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Ministral 8B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 11.0x cheaper than o4-mini ($1.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Ministral 8B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 44.0x cheaper than o4-mini ($4.40/1M tokens).

In conclusion, o4-mini is more expensive than Ministral 8B Instruct.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Wed Jun 24 2026 • llm-stats.com
Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.10
Best providerMistral
OpenAI
o4-mini
Input tokens$1.10
Output tokens$4.40
Best providerOpenAI
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

o4-mini accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Ministral 8B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Ministral 8B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while o4-mini is limited to 100,000 tokens.

Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
OpenAI
o4-mini
Input200,000 tokens
Output100,000 tokens
Wed Jun 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

o4-mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Ministral 8B Instruct does not.

o4-mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Ministral 8B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

o4-mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Ministral 8B Instruct is licensed under Mistral Research License, while o4-mini uses a proprietary license.

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

Ministral 8B Instruct

Mistral Research License

Open weights

o4-mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Ministral 8B Instruct was released on 2024-10-16, while o4-mini was released on 2025-04-16.

o4-mini is 6 months newer than Ministral 8B Instruct.

Ministral 8B Instruct

Oct 16, 2024

1.7 years ago

o4-mini

Apr 16, 2025

1.2 years ago

6mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

o4-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while Ministral 8B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm o4-mini's training data extends to 2024-05-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Ministral 8B Instruct's cutoff date.

Ministral 8B Instruct

—

o4-mini

May 2024

Provider Availability

Ministral 8B Instruct is available from Mistral AI. o4-mini is available from OpenAI.

Ministral 8B Instruct

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.10/1M

o4-mini

openai logo
OpenAI
Input Price:Input: $1.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $4.40/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Mistral AI
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights
OpenAI
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Mistral AIMinistral 8B Instruct
OpenAIo4-mini
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
OpenAI
o4-mini

FAQ

Common questions about Ministral 8B Instruct vs o4-mini.

Which is better, Ministral 8B Instruct or o4-mini?

Ministral 8B Instruct (Mistral AI) and o4-mini (OpenAI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Ministral 8B Instruct compare to o4-mini in benchmarks?

Ministral 8B Instruct scores MT-Bench: 83.0%, Winogrande: 75.3%, ARC-C: 71.9%, Arena Hard: 70.9%, MBPP pass@1: 70.0%. o4-mini scores AIME 2024: 93.4%, AIME 2025: 92.7%, MathVista: 84.3%, MMMU: 81.6%, GPQA: 81.4%.

Is Ministral 8B Instruct cheaper than o4-mini?

Ministral 8B Instruct is 11.0x cheaper for input tokens. Ministral 8B Instruct costs $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output via mistral. o4-mini costs $1.10/M input and $4.40/M output via openai.

What are the context window sizes for Ministral 8B Instruct and o4-mini?

Ministral 8B Instruct supports 128K tokens and o4-mini supports 200K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Ministral 8B Instruct and o4-mini?

Key differences include context window (128K vs 200K), input pricing ($0.10 vs $1.10/M), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Mistral Research License vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Ministral 8B Instruct and o4-mini?

Ministral 8B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI and o4-mini is developed by OpenAI.

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