ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3.1 vs GLM-4.5-Air

Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Medium 3.1 50, GLM-4.5-Air 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3.1

    Released Aug 12, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3.1

  2. Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-4.5-Air

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove GLM-4.5-Air

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mistral Medium 3.1 50/100, GLM-4.5-Air 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GLM-4.5-Air on price and Mistral Medium 3.1 for long inputs. 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 priceGLM-4.5-AirGLM-4.5-Air $0.425 · Mistral Medium 3.1 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1 262,144 · GLM-4.5-Air 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1: Text, Images · GLM-4.5-Air: Text
  • Self-hostingGLM-4.5-AirPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3.1GLM-4.5-Air
Price50%5468
Inputs & features30%5035
Context window20%3724
Overall100%50/10049/100

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.

Mistral Medium 3.1 vs GLM-4.5-Air specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3.1Mistral AIGLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.20 (best)
Output$2.00$1.10 (best)
Cached input—$0.03
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.425 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens (best)98,304 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDmistral-medium-2508glm-4.5-air
API providers113 (best)
ReleasedAug 12, 2025Jul 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Apr 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.

  • Mistral Medium 3.1$8.00
  • GLM-4.5-Air$4.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3.1 or GLM-4.5-Air?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mistral Medium 3.1 50/100, GLM-4.5-Air 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GLM-4.5-Air on price and Mistral Medium 3.1 for long inputs. 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, Mistral Medium 3.1 or GLM-4.5-Air?

GLM-4.5-Air is cheaper at $0.20 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). Mistral Medium 3.1 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.425 per million tokens for GLM-4.5-Air versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3.1 (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Mistral Medium 3.1 has not been scored yet and GLM-4.5-Air has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3.1 and GLM-4.5-Air 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?

Mistral Medium 3.1 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for GLM-4.5-Air. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3.1 up to 262,144, GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts text and images; GLM-4.5-Air accepts text. Mistral Medium 3.1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

GLM-4.5-Air publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3.1 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3.1 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2025. GLM-4.5-Air came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3.1 May 2025, GLM-4.5-Air Apr 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

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