GPT-5.6 Luna (High) vs Mistral Small 3.1
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Luna (High) by OpenAI or Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Luna (High) scores 25.0 points higher (32.1 vs 7.1) but costs 3.9× as much to run the benchmark ($108 vs $27.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Luna (High) when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Luna (High) | Mistral Small 3.1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 32.1 | 7.1 | −77.9% Mistral Small 3.1 is 77.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $108.15 | $27.82 | −74.3% Mistral Small 3.1 is 74.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.62s | 10.74s | −26.5% Mistral Small 3.1 is 26.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.20 / $1.20 | $0.08 / $0.14 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.1 vs GPT-5.6 Luna (High): 77.9% less intelligence, 74.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 26.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Luna (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
- Mistral Small 3.1 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
GPT-5.6 Luna (High)Mistral Small 3.1Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna-high/mistral-small-3-1 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna-high/mistral-small-3-1?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill