ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Magistral Medium vs Command A

Magistral Medium comes out ahead, 30 to 24 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Magistral Medium

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    30/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.00 / $5.00
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Magistral Medium

  2. Cohere

    Command A

    Released Mar 13, 2025

    24/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$2.50 / $10.00
    • Context256K
    Full specs Remove Command A

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Magistral Medium is our pick

Magistral Medium is the better all-round choice, scoring 30/100 against Command A (24). It leads on price and inputs & features. Command A wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceMagistral MediumMagistral Medium $2.75 · Command A $4.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextCommand ACommand A 256,000 · Magistral Medium 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsMagistral Medium: Text · Command A: Text
  • Self-hostingCommand APublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMagistral MediumCommand A
Price50%2919
Inputs & features30%3525
Context window20%2436
Overall100%30/10024/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Magistral Medium vs Command A specifications side by side
SpecificationMagistral MediumMistral AICommand ACohere
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00 (best)$2.50
Output$5.00 (best)$10.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$2.75 (best)$4.38
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Cohere API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens256,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens (best)8,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDmagistral-medium-latestcommand-a-03-2025
API providers4 (best)3
ReleasedMar 17, 2025Mar 13, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJun 2025Jun 1, 2024
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.

  • Magistral Medium$30.00
  • Command A$45.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Magistral Medium or Command A?

Magistral Medium is the better all-round choice, scoring 30/100 against Command A (24). It leads on price and inputs & features. Command A wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Magistral Medium or Command A?

Magistral Medium is cheaper at $2.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Command A costs $2.50 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Cohere API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.75 per million tokens for Magistral Medium versus $4.38 for Command A (1.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Magistral Medium has not been scored yet and Command A has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Magistral Medium and Command A yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Command A has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Magistral Medium. Maximum output per response: Magistral Medium up to 16,384, Command A up to 8,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Magistral Medium accepts text; Command A accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Command A publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Magistral Medium is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Magistral Medium is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. Command A came out Mar 13, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Magistral Medium Jun 2025, Command A Jun 1, 2024.

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