Head-to-Head API Cost Benchmark

Mistral Small 3 vs OpenAI o3-mini: API Price & Latency Comparison

On a standard B2B production workload (5,000 req/day), Mistral Small 3 is 92.0% cheaper ($46.12/mo vs $573.38/mo), while Mistral Small 3 leads in token generation speed (150 tok/s).

Side-by-Side Specification & Billing Matrix

Metric Mistral Small 3 (Mistral AI (La Plateforme)) OpenAI o3-mini (OpenAI) Advantage
Standard Input / 1M Tokens $0.100 $1.100 Mistral Small 3
Cached Input / 1M Tokens $0.050 $0.550 Mistral Small 3
Output Generation / 1M Tokens $0.30 $4.40 Mistral Small 3
Intelligence / Benchmark Quality 1215 LMSYS Elo 1305 LMSYS Elo OpenAI o3-mini
Monthly Spend (5k req/day, 50% cache) $46.12 / mo $573.38 / mo Mistral Small 3 (-92.0%)
Context Window 32,000 tokens 200,000 tokens OpenAI o3-mini
Output Speed (Throughput) 150 tokens/sec 95 tokens/sec Mistral Small 3
Batch API Discount -50% (Mistral AI (La Plateforme)) -50% (OpenAI) Mistral AI (La Plateforme)
Primary Workload Fit GDPR-strict European customer support automation & structured extraction Algorithmic code generation, math, STEM reasoning, automated QA agents Workload Dependent
Deploy / Console Access Try Mistral Small 3 → Try OpenAI o3-mini → Open Full Simulator