GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct vs Mistral Small 3
Mistral Small 3 costs 25.0x less per output token than GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct ($0.08 vs $2.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $2.00
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $0.08
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct or Mistral Small 3: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
No benchmark has tested both yet. GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct has results on METR time horizons; Mistral Small 3 on LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run), LMArena Text: coding and LMArena Text: software and IT. Compare them on price and context instead.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Mistral Small 3 has a AA Intelligence Index result, 6.7.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Mistral Small 3
Mistral Small 3 takes 33K tokens against 4K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 3
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct $0.0025, Mistral Small 3 $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct not benchmarked, Mistral Small 3 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- None yet: no category has been tested on both models.
- Widest single gap
- None yet: no benchmark has tested both models.
- Output price
- GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct $2.00 against Mistral Small 3 $0.08 per million output tokens, 25.0x apart.
- Context window
- GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct takes 4K tokens, Mistral Small 3 33K.
Benchmark by benchmark
Every board either model has a result on, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale. Only one model is measured on each, so no row names a leader.
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index3 boards measured
| Benchmark | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 25.2% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1246 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1248 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board measured
| Benchmark | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 6.7 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 19.6% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| METR time horizons | 21.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards measured
| Benchmark | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 46.2% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1233 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1202 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1243 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards measured
| Benchmark | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 4.3 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 4.3% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1240 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1243 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards measured
| Benchmark | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 65.2% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1235 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1215 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1219 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1205 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17 boards measured
| Benchmark | GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 26.4% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1234 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1214 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1194 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1256 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1198 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1204 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1211 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1111 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1188 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1204 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1216 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1217 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1246 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1214 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1184 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mistral Small 3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mistral Small 3 costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | OpenAI GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 28, 2023 | January 30, 2025 |
| Context window | 4K | 33K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.50 | $0.05 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.08 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct better than Mistral Small 3 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
Which is cheaper, GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct or Mistral Small 3?
GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens; Mistral Small 3 costs $0.05 and $0.08. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Small 3, with 33K tokens against 4K.
Has any benchmark tested both GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct and Mistral Small 3?
No benchmark has tested both yet. GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct has results on METR time horizons; Mistral Small 3 on LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run), LMArena Text: coding and LMArena Text: software and IT. Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 22, 2026.