Quick Verdict
| Need | Better first pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Low-cost hosted text | Mistral | Compare Small and Large with Luna before choosing a default |
| Broad proprietary ecosystem | OpenAI | Stronger product surface, tooling, and multimodal coverage |
| Coding-specific route | Mistral Codestral | A coding-specialist control for your evaluation |
| Premium reasoning | OpenAI | GPT-6.1 Sol is expensive but has the cleaner high-end path |
| EU-friendly procurement | Mistral | Often easier for teams prioritizing European vendor strategy |
| Pricing data: How we verify → | ||
Use the chart and calculator above to model your own monthly volume. For Mistral-only model details, start with the Mistral API pricing guide.
Compare the current API rates
The chart, calculator, and price table above are generated from the maintained pricing dataset. Use those rates rather than a second, frozen table. The chart compares equal token volumes; it does not measure model quality or cost per accepted task.
Mistral is the better price story when normal hosted text, code-specialist work, or open-model flexibility is the job. OpenAI remains the safer default when one provider needs to cover cheap utility calls, multimodal features, and premium agent work.
Where Mistral Wins
Mistral Small 4, Codestral, and Mistral Large 3 provide general-text and coding-focused candidates to test against OpenAI’s current routes. Older Devstral and Magistral rows are marked legacy in our dataset and are not new-project defaults here. Test the active routes for extraction, summarization, and developer tooling, and verify actual hosting location and contract terms if EU procurement matters.
Where OpenAI Wins
OpenAI wins on ecosystem, docs, SDK familiarity, third-party integrations, and multimodal breadth. GPT-6.1 Sol is expensive, but it is still a strong escalation route for hard tasks that need the OpenAI quality ceiling.
Routing Table
| Workload | First route | Escalation route |
|---|---|---|
| Classification | Mistral Small 4 | GPT-6 Luna |
| Code completion | Codestral | GPT-6.1 Sol |
| Code review | Codestral or Mistral Large 3 | GPT-6.1 Sol |
| General support | Mistral Large 3 | GPT-6 Luna |
| Hard agent task | GPT-6 Luna | GPT-6.1 Sol |
Bottom line
Mistral is a strong cost-control and open-model-flexibility option. OpenAI is the broader platform. Test Mistral for cheap text and coding-specialist workloads, then keep OpenAI for tasks where ecosystem and quality ceiling justify the higher rate.
Use Mistral pricing and OpenAI pricing for full catalogs, and the calculator for your workload.
For an additional hosted open-model control, benchmark the same tasks on Novita. Verify the host, exact model, rate, and data-handling terms independently.
Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission from the sponsored link at no extra cost to you. It does not affect the comparison.
FAQ
Is Mistral cheaper than OpenAI?
There is no universal winner. Compare Small, Codestral, or Large with both Luna and Sol at your input-output mix, then include actual cache hits and retries.
Which Mistral model should I test first?
Start with Mistral Small 4 for cheap general text, Codestral for code completion, and Mistral Large 3 when Small is not strong enough.
Does Mistral support cached input pricing?
The selected active Small, Codestral, and Large rows include cached-input rates in the current dataset. Model uncached input and actual cache hits separately; a listed discount does not mean every request qualifies.
When should I still choose OpenAI?
Choose OpenAI when multimodal features, mature tooling, broad integrations, or a premium GPT escalation route matter more than raw token price.