ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs Claude Opus 4.1

Mistral Medium 3 comes out ahead, 53 to 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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. Anthropic

    Claude Opus 4.1

    Released Aug 5, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI144.1
    • Price$15.00 / $75.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Opus 4.1

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Mistral Medium 3 is our pick

Mistral Medium 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price. Claude Opus 4.1 wins on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Opus 4.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · Claude Opus 4.1 $30.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Opus 4.1Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Opus 4.1Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3Claude Opus 4.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5871
Price25%540
Inputs & features15%5070
Context window10%2432
Overall100%53/10049/100
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 Claude Opus 4.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIClaude Opus 4.1Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1144.1 (best)
ECI rank#117 of 148#81 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5%77.3% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—12.6%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2%68.9% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—73.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$15.00
Output$2.00 (best)$75.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80 (best)$30.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 14 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)32,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDmistral-medium-2505—
API providers514 (best)
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Aug 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Mar 31, 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
  • Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3 or Claude Opus 4.1?

Mistral Medium 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price. Claude Opus 4.1 wins on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or Claude Opus 4.1?

Mistral Medium 3 is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Claude Opus 4.1 costs $15.00 input / $75.00 output per million tokens (median across 14 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 $30.00 for Claude Opus 4.1 (38× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Opus 4.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 (#81 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (141.6–146.0 vs 130.5–135.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Opus 4.1 77.3%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Opus 4.1 68.9%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 4.1 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?

Claude Opus 4.1 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Claude Opus 4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Opus 4.1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Mistral Medium 3 and Claude Opus 4.1 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Claude Opus 4.1 is the newest, released Aug 5, 2025. Mistral Medium 3 came out May 7, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Claude Opus 4.1 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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