Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4
Mistral Medium 3.5 comes out ahead, 55 to 51 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.5
55/100- ECI141.4
- Price$1.50 / $7.50
- Context262K
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4
51/100- ECI141.7
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context200K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Mistral Medium 3.5 is our pick
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4 141.7 · Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4
- Lowest priceMistral Medium 3.5Mistral Medium 3.5 $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 4 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMistral Medium 3.5Mistral Medium 3.5 262,144 · Claude Sonnet 4 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 4Mistral Medium 3.5: Text, Images · Claude Sonnet 4: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingMistral Medium 3.5Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Claude Sonnet 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 67 | 68 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 13 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 55/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI | Claude Sonnet 4Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 141.4 | 141.7 (best) |
| ECI rank | #95 of 148 | #94 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 79.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 71.1% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.50 (best) | $3.00 |
| Output | $7.50 (best) | $15.00 |
| Cached input | $0.15 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 (best) | $6.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Median of 9 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens (best) | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeshigh | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-medium-2604 | — |
| API providers | 12 (best) | 9 |
| Released | Apr 29, 2026 | May 22, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Mar 31, 2025 |
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 3.5$30.00
- Claude Sonnet 4$60.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Medium 3.5 or Claude Sonnet 4?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Claude Sonnet 4?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is cheaper at $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Mistral Medium 3.5 versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4 (2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 4 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4 141.7 (#94 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4 (#95 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (139.2–142.9 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 Mistral Medium 3.5 and Claude Sonnet 4 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 4 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 Sonnet 4. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3.5 up to 262,144, Claude Sonnet 4 up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts text and images; Claude Sonnet 4 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 4 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 Sonnet 4 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the newest, released Apr 29, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4 came out May 22, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 4 Mar 31, 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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