Mistral Small 3 vs o3
Updated October 21, 2026. 36 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Mistral Small 3 has the edge where output tokens cost 100.0x less, and where what matters is LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) or LMArena Text: coding, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 36
- Mistral Small 3 only
- 0
- o3 only
- 61
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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
o3
o3 leads, 20.2 against 6.7.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only o3 has a GPQA Diamond result, 84.1%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only o3 has a AIME result, 85.3%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only o3 has a MMLU Pro result, 85.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only o3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1036.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
o3
o3 takes 200K tokens against 33K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 3
Mistral Small 3 $0.0001, o3 $0.0060 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only o3 has the number, $0.571.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Small 3 not benchmarked, o3 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 61.1 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- AA Math Index: Mistral Small 3 4.3 against o3 88.3, 84.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Small 3 $0.08 against o3 $8.00 per million output tokens, 100.0x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Small 3 takes 33K tokens, o3 200K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Mistral Small 3 | Bars | o3 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 3 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 5 | ||
| Math | 0 | 4 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 5 | ||
| General | 0 | 17 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 36 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index03
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | Not measured | 81.3% | Only o3 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 58.4% | Only o3 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal | Not measured | 36.0% | Only o3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.9% | Only o3 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.2% | 80.8% | o3 |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 37.1% | Only o3 measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 8.8% | Only o3 measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 52.4% | Only o3 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 933.5 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1246 | 1407 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1248 | 1415 | o3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 6.7 | 20.2 | o3 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.7 | Only o3 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 19.6% | 80.7% | o3 |
| METR time horizons | Not measured | 65.4% | Only o3 measured |
| GDPval | Not measured | 30.8% | Only o3 measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | Not measured | 45.2% | Only o3 measured |
| OSWorld | Not measured | 23.0% | Only o3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 84.1% | Only o3 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 80.4% | Only o3 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 46.2% | 82.7% | o3 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.8% | 20.1% | o3 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 81.8% | Only o3 measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 60.8% | Only o3 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 6.5% | Only o3 measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 53.1% | Only o3 measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 37.0% | Only o3 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 29.0% | Only o3 measured |
| VPCT | Not measured | 52.0% | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1233 | 1402 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1202 | 1402 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1243 | 1411 | o3 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1220 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1234 | Only o3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 85.3% | Only o3 measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 94.6% | Only o3 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.8% | Only o3 measured |
| AA Math Index | 4.3 | 88.3 | o3 |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.3% | 88.3% | o3 |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 84.4% | Only o3 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 33.3% | Only o3 measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 97.8% | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1240 | 1426 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1243 | 1423 | o3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 85.6% | Only o3 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.8% | Only o3 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.7% | Only o3 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 74.6% | Only o3 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.7% | Only o3 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 96.1% | Only o3 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.3% | Only o3 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 65.2% | 85.3% | o3 |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 49.4% | Only o3 measured |
| GeoBench | Not measured | 74.0% | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1235 | 1429 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1215 | 1448 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1219 | 1428 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1205 | 1393 | o3 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1036 | Only o3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1017 | Only o3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1034 | Only o3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1200 | Only o3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1020 | Only o3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index017
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.8% | Only o3 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 76.7% | Only o3 measured |
| IFBench | 26.4% | 71.4% | o3 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 0.0% | 74.7% | o3 |
| DTBench | Not measured | 84.8% | Only o3 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 39.7% | Only o3 measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 88.9% | Only o3 measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 83.9% | Only o3 measured |
| CL-bench | Not measured | 17.8% | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1410 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1214 | 1368 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1194 | 1359 | o3 |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1214 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1256 | 1417 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1198 | 1401 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1204 | 1437 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1211 | 1420 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1111 | 1403 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1188 | 1370 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1204 | 1430 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1395 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1216 | 1406 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1438 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1217 | 1405 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1246 | 1372 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1214 | 1372 | o3 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1184 | 1373 | o3 |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1221 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1237 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1218 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1222 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1210 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1234 | Only o3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1201 | Only o3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | o3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 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 | Mistral Small 3 | OpenAI o3 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | OpenAI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | January 30, 2025 | April 16, 2025 |
| Context window | 33K | 200K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.05 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.08 | $8.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.571 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Small 3 better than o3 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Mistral Small 3 has the edge where output tokens cost 100.0x less, and where what matters is LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) or LMArena Text: coding, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or o3?
Mistral Small 3 costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; o3 costs $2.00 and $8.00. Cost per solved task is known for o3 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Small 3 or o3?
o3, with 200K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Small 3 vs o3 comparison based on?
36 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Mistral Small 3's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and o3's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.