Mistral Medium 3 vs MiniMax-M2.5
MiniMax-M2.5 comes out ahead, 61 to 53 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
- Our pick
MiniMaxMiniMax-M2.5
61/100- ECI146.7
- Price$0.30 / $1.20
- Context205K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
MiniMax-M2.5 is our pick
MiniMax-M2.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability, price and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMiniMax-M2.5Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
- Lowest priceMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M2.5 $0.525 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMiniMax-M2.5MiniMax-M2.5 204,800 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · MiniMax-M2.5: Text
- Self-hostingMiniMax-M2.5Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Medium 3 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 74 |
| Price | 25% | 54 | 63 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 61/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI | MiniMax-M2.5MiniMax |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 134.1 | 146.7 (best) |
| ECI rank | #117 of 148 | #66 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 59.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 32.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.40 | $0.30 (best) |
| Output | $2.00 | $1.20 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.80 | $0.525 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official MiniMax (minimax.io) API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 204,800 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | mistral-medium-2505 | MiniMax-M2.5 |
| API providers | 5 | 21 (best) |
| Released | May 7, 2025 | Feb 12, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 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$8.00
- MiniMax-M2.5$5.40
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Medium 3 or MiniMax-M2.5?
MiniMax-M2.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability, price and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or MiniMax-M2.5?
MiniMax-M2.5 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). 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 $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M2.5 versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 (#66 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (142.3–147.9 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 MiniMax-M2.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, MiniMax-M2.5 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?
MiniMax-M2.5 has the largest context window at 204,800 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, MiniMax-M2.5 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; MiniMax-M2.5 accepts text. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
MiniMax-M2.5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
MiniMax-M2.5 is the newest, released Feb 12, 2026. 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.
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