gpt-oss-120b is $0.01 cheaper per 1M input tokens (22% lower; 1.28x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
🔥gpt-oss-120b vs Mistral Small 3
Pick Mistral Small 3 for lower cost; pick gpt-oss-120b only if the larger context window matters more.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Mistral Small 3 for lower cost; pick gpt-oss-120b only if the larger context window matters more.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 3 is estimated at $0.09 vs $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b, saving $0.04 (30.2% lower).
Cost-first pickMistral Small 3
Context-first pickgpt-oss-120b
Sample savings$0.0430.2%
10x traffic gap$0.39
gpt-oss-120b has more context, but Mistral Small 3 saves $0.04 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.39. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Cost winner changes by workload shape: input-heavy / RAG favors gpt-oss-120b, balanced workload favors Mistral Small 3, and output-heavy chatbot favors Mistral Small 3.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | gpt-oss-120b | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | gpt-oss-120b | $0.29 | $0.29 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Mistral Small 3 | $0.22 | $0.13 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Mistral Small 3 | $0.94 | $0.45 |
Mistral Small 3 is $0.1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (55.6% lower; 2.25x difference).
gpt-oss-120b has 98.3K more context (4x larger).
Mistral Small 3 is $0.04 cheaper on the standard workload (30.2% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
gpt-oss-120b has the lower input price; Mistral Small 3 has the lower output price; gpt-oss-120b offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Mistral Small 3 is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b and $0.09 for Mistral Small 3.
Choose gpt-oss-120b when you care most about lower input-token price, and larger context window.
Choose Mistral Small 3 when you care most about lower output-token price.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 3 is estimated at $0.09 vs $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b, saving $0.04 (30.2% lower).
- Mistral Small 3 is $0.04 cheaper on the standard workload (30.2% lower).
- gpt-oss-120b is $0.01 cheaper per 1M input tokens (22% lower; 1.28x difference).
- Mistral Small 3 is $0.1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (55.6% lower; 2.25x difference).
- gpt-oss-120b has 98.3K more context (4x larger).
| Feature | 🔥gpt-oss-120b (OpenAI) | Mistral Small 3 (Mistral) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.039 | $0.05 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.18 | $0.08 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.13 | $0.09 |
| Context Window | 131.07K | 32.77K |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #20 | #135 |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Mistral Small 3 | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 3 is estimated at $0.09 vs $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b, saving $0.04 (30.2% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | gpt-oss-120b | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Mistral Small 3 | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | gpt-oss-120b | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace gpt-oss-120b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace gpt-oss-120b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- gpt-oss-20b can replace gpt-oss-120b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
- Mistral Nemo can replace Mistral Small 3 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.04.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- Lyria 3 Clip Preview offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- Lyria 3 Pro Preview offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4
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Open Mistral modelsgpt-oss-120b is an open-weight, 117B-parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model from OpenAI designed for high-reasoning, agentic, and general-purpose production use cases. It activates 5.1B parameters per forward pass and is optimized...
Mistral Small 3 is a 24B-parameter language model optimized for low-latency performance across common AI tasks. Released under the Apache 2.0 license, it features both pre-trained and instruction-tuned versions designed...