ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Kimi K2 Thinking vs Mistral Medium 3

Kimi K2 Thinking comes out ahead, 58 to 53 on our weighted score, though Mistral Medium 3 is 26% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2 Thinking

    Released Nov 6, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI146.0
    • Price$0.60 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2 Thinking

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3

    Released May 7, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI134.1
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Kimi K2 Thinking is our pick

Kimi K2 Thinking is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityKimi K2 ThinkingCapabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · Kimi K2 Thinking $1.07 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextKimi K2 ThinkingKimi K2 Thinking 262,144 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Kimi K2 Thinking: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingKimi K2 ThinkingPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightKimi K2 ThinkingMistral Medium 3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7358
Price25%4854
Inputs & features15%3550
Context window10%3724
Overall100%58/10053/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Kimi K2 Thinking vs Mistral Medium 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationKimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AIMistral Medium 3Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.0 (best)134.1
ECI rank#72 of 148 (best)#117 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.2% (best)59.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics83.1% (best)32.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60$0.40 (best)
Output$2.50$2.00 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$1.07$0.80 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 10 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—mistral-medium-2505
API providers10 (best)5
ReleasedNov 6, 2025May 7, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024May 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Kimi K2 Thinking$11.00
  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Kimi K2 Thinking or Mistral Medium 3?

Kimi K2 Thinking is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking or Mistral Medium 3?

Mistral Medium 3 is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Kimi K2 Thinking costs $0.60 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 10 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.80 per million tokens for Mistral Medium 3 versus $1.07 for Kimi K2 Thinking (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Kimi K2 Thinking scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 (#72 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (143.4–147.6 vs 130.5–135.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Kimi K2 Thinking 84.2%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Kimi K2 Thinking 83.1%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Kimi K2 Thinking and Mistral Medium 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Kimi K2 Thinking 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?

Kimi K2 Thinking has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2 Thinking up to 262,144, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Kimi K2 Thinking accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Kimi K2 Thinking publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Kimi K2 Thinking is the newest, released Nov 6, 2025. Mistral Medium 3 came out May 7, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2 Thinking Aug 2024, Mistral Medium 3 May 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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons