Mistral Medium 3 vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 vs GPT-4.1 mini
GPT-4.1 mini comes out ahead, 60 to 53 and 44 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
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2
44/100- ECI133.5
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context200K
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-4.1 mini
60/100- ECI135.0
- Price$0.40 / $1.60
- Context1.05M
GPT-4.1 mini is our pick
GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-4.1 miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5
- Lowest priceGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2 and GPT-4.1 miniMistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Medium 3 | Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 57 | 59 |
| Price | 25% | 54 | 13 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 60 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 32 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 44/100 | 60/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI | Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic | GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 134.1 | 133.5 | 135.0 (best) |
| ECI rank | #117 of 148 | #119 of 148 | #115 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 59.5% | 55.3% | 65.9% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | — | 6.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 32.2% | 8.5% | 44.7% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | — | 12.7% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 (best) | $3.00 | $0.40 (best) |
| Output | $2.00 | $15.00 | $1.60 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.10 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.80 | $6.00 | $0.70 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Median of 1 providers | Official OpenAI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 200,000 tokens | 1,047,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-medium-2505 | — | gpt-4.1-mini |
| API providers | 5 | 1 | 24 (best) |
| Released | May 7, 2025 | Oct 22, 2024 | Apr 14, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2025 | Apr 30, 2024 | Apr 2024 |
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 Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
- GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Medium 3, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or GPT-4.1 mini?
GPT-4.1 mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 or GPT-4.1 mini?
GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.70 per million tokens for GPT-4.1 mini versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.1× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (8.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148), Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (131.2–136.6 vs 130.5–135.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 8.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 and GPT-4.1 mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-4.1 mini leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-4.1 mini has the largest context window at 1,047,576 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 and 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Mistral Medium 3, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 and GPT-4.1 mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 Apr 30, 2024, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 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.
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