ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Medium 3 for raw capability and Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMistral Medium 3Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3 134.1 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsMistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3Mistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5850
Price25%5476
Inputs & features15%5060
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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1 (best)127.5
ECI rank#117 of 148 (best)#132 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5% (best)47.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2% (best)5.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.229 (best)
Output$2.00$0.436 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.281 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDmistral-medium-2505—
API providers5 (best)2
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Jun 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
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Medium 3 for raw capability and Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 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 $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (2.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Mistral Medium 3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (130.5–135.6 vs 122.6–129.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Medium 3 32.2%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Medium 3 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 has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 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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