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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs DeepSeek-V3.1

Too close to call on our weighted score (DeepSeek-V3.1 55, Mistral Medium 3 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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

  2. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3.1

    Released Aug 21, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI139.9
    • Price$0.385 / $1.25
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3.1

  3. Add a model

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (DeepSeek-V3.1 55/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3.1 for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityDeepSeek-V3.1Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek-V3.1 $0.601 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameMistral Medium 3 131,072 · DeepSeek-V3.1 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · DeepSeek-V3.1: Text
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-V3.1Publishes downloadable weights (MIT License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3DeepSeek-V3.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5865
Price25%5460
Inputs & features15%5035
Context window10%2424
Overall100%53/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Medium 3 vs DeepSeek-V3.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIDeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1139.9 (best)
ECI rank#117 of 148#100 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.385 (best)
Output$2.00$1.25 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.601 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 8 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenMIT License
API model IDmistral-medium-2505—
API providers58 (best)
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Aug 21, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 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$8.00
  • DeepSeek-V3.1$6.35
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3 or DeepSeek-V3.1?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (DeepSeek-V3.1 55/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3.1 for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or DeepSeek-V3.1?

DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper at $0.385 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers). Mistral Medium 3 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 $0.601 per million tokens for DeepSeek-V3.1 versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 (#100 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (136.1–143.3 vs 130.5–135.6), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3 and DeepSeek-V3.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek-V3.1 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 and DeepSeek-V3.1 share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, DeepSeek-V3.1 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; DeepSeek-V3.1 accepts text. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek-V3.1 publishes its weights (MIT License) and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

DeepSeek-V3.1 is the newest, released Aug 21, 2025. Mistral Medium 3 came out May 7, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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

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