Magistral Medium 1 vs o3-mini
Wins 1 of 6 areas
Agents
Wins 3 of 6 areas
Reasoning · Long documents · Following instructions
o3-mini wins more areas, narrowly.Magistral Medium 1 is better at agents.
Scores updated · 20 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the six areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking03o3-mini3 of 4 tests · 1 tie
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts01o3-mini1 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked01o3-mini1 of 1 test
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own10Magistral Medium 11 of 1 test
- CodingWriting and fixing software11Even1 each
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up11Even1 each
Agents, long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where o3-mini pulls ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+42points ahead
- Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+13.1points ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+9.4points ahead
Where Magistral Medium 1 pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+21.8points ahead
- Hard command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench Hard+3points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 20 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingEven
- SciCodeo3-mini by 13.129.742.8+13.1
- Terminal-Bench HardMagistral Medium 1 by 39.16.1+3
Reasoningo3-mini
- GPQA Diamondo3-mini by 9.467.977.3+9.4
- ARC-AGI-2o3-mini by 303+3
- Humanity's Last Examo3-mini by 2.29.812+2.2
- CritPttie0.30.3tie
FactsEven
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationMagistral Medium 1 by 21.840.718.9+21.8
- AA-Omniscience · Accuracyo3-mini by 120.321.3+1
Other results9 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- ARC-AGI-1o3-mini by 28.46.134.5+28.4
- LiveCodeBencho3-mini by 27.450.377.7+27.4
- Aider-Polygloto3-mini by 19.647.166.7+19.6
- AIME 2025Magistral Medium 1 by 16.664.948.3+16.6
- AA-OmniscienceMagistral Medium 1 by 15.7-26.9-42.6+15.7
- AIME 2024o3-mini by 8.970.779.6+8.9
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)o3-mini by 8.223.131.3+8.2
- AA Intelligenceo3-mini by 1.99.111+1.9
- Artificial Analysis Coding Indextie1616.3tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Magistral Medium 1 or o3-mini?
o3-mini wins three of the six areas where both have results: reasoning, long documents and following instructions. Magistral Medium 1 wins agents. They are level on coding and facts.
Which is better for coding?
Neither. They win 1 coding test each of the 2 both models report.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 20 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 11 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 9 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.