ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs Kimi K2 Thinking

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

  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. 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

  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 3Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Kimi K2 Thinking: Text
  • Self-hostingKimi K2 ThinkingPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3Kimi K2 Thinking
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5873
Price25%5448
Inputs & features15%5035
Context window10%2437
Overall100%53/10058/100
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 Kimi K2 Thinking specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIKimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1146.0 (best)
ECI rank#117 of 148#72 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5%84.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2%83.1% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$0.60
Output$2.00 (best)$2.50
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80 (best)$1.07
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 10 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDmistral-medium-2505—
API providers510 (best)
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Nov 6, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Aug 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.

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

Which should you choose?

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

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, Mistral Medium 3 or Kimi K2 Thinking?

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 Mistral Medium 3 and Kimi K2 Thinking 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: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Kimi K2 Thinking up to 262,144 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Kimi K2 Thinking accepts text. 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: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Kimi K2 Thinking Aug 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

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