gpt-5.6 vs ministral-8b-latest
ministral-8b-latest is 33.3× cheaper on input than gpt-5.6.
| gpt-5.6 | ministral-8b-latest | |
|---|---|---|
| Input / 1M | $5.00 | $0.15 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.50 | — |
| Output / 1M | $30.00 | $0.15 |
| Context window | 1.1M | 262K |
| Max output | 128K | 262K |
| Provider | OpenAI | Mistral |
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Token count | exact | estimated |
Capability for the money
Independent measurement · Artificial Analysis · read 2026-08-11Not the same tier: gpt-5.6 leads ministral-8b-latest by 43.6 points on following instructions (IFBench), for 75.0× the price.
Following instructions
extraction, classification, sticking to a format
IFBenchgpt-5.6 +43.6
Tool use
multi-step agent work against real tools
τ²-benchgpt-5.6 +58.5
Hard reasoning
graduate-level science and multi-step analysis
GPQA Diamondgpt-5.6 +47.0
Averaged over the benchmarks both models sat, ministral-8b-latest returns 228.4 points of pass rate per dollar of blended price against 7.5 — the ratio that decides whether the dearer model earns its rate.
Each figure is a pass rate: the share of that test set the model answered correctly, measured by a third party rather than self-reported by the lab. Rows are different tests of different difficulty, so compare a model against the other model, not one row against the next. No published coding score for one of these models, so that lens is omitted. And a benchmark is not your workload — it narrows the shortlist, it does not pick for you.
Which to pick
- Cheaper input: ministral-8b-latest
- Cheaper output: ministral-8b-latest
- Larger context: gpt-5.6
- Better at following instructions: gpt-5.6 (72.7% vs 29.1% on IFBench)
- Better at tool use: gpt-5.6 (85.1% vs 26.6% on τ²-bench)
- Better at hard reasoning: gpt-5.6 (94.1% vs 47.1% on GPQA Diamond)
List price is not production cost. Output length, cache hit rate, retries and task quality move the real number more than the headline rate does — price your own prompt on the token ledger before deciding.
Related comparisons
gpt-5.6 detail · ministral-8b-latest detail · All OpenAI pricing · All comparisons