Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Claude Haiku 4.5 comes out ahead, 58 to 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
58/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.5
55/100- ECI141.4
- Price$1.50 / $7.50
- Context262K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Claude Haiku 4.5 is our pick
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Medium 3.5 (55). It leads on price and inputs & features. Mistral Medium 3.5 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Haiku 4.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 · Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4
- Lowest priceClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Mistral Medium 3.5 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMistral Medium 3.5Mistral Medium 3.5 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Mistral Medium 3.5: Text, Images
- Self-hostingMistral Medium 3.5Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 69 | 67 |
| Price | 25% | 36 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 58/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.4 (best) | 141.4 |
| ECI rank | #90 of 148 (best) | #95 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 71.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 66.7% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 13.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.00 (best) | $1.50 |
| Output | $5.00 (best) | $7.50 |
| Cached input | $0.10 (best) | $0.15 |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.00 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeshigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | claude-haiku-4-5 | mistral-medium-2604 |
| API providers | 34 (best) | 12 |
| Released | Oct 15, 2025 | Apr 29, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 28, 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
- Mistral Medium 3.5$30.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5 or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Medium 3.5 (55). It leads on price and inputs & features. Mistral Medium 3.5 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is cheaper at $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.00 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5 versus $3.00 for Mistral Medium 3.5 (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Haiku 4.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 (#90 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4 (#95 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (139.5–144.3 vs 138.4–143.7), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 4.5 and Mistral Medium 3.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 4.5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Mistral Medium 3.5 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Mistral Medium 3.5 up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts text and images. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral Medium 3.5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 4.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the newest, released Apr 29, 2026. Claude Haiku 4.5 came out Oct 15, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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