ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

Mistral Medium 3 comes out ahead, 53 to 44 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 Sonnet 3.5 v2

    Released Oct 22, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI133.5
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

  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 Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on price. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMistral Medium 3Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3 134.1 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5
  • Lowest priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5857
Price25%5413
Inputs & features15%5060
Context window10%2432
Overall100%53/10044/100
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 Sonnet 3.5 v2 specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1 (best)133.5
ECI rank#117 of 148 (best)#119 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5% (best)55.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2% (best)8.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$3.00
Output$2.00 (best)$15.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDmistral-medium-2505—
API providers5 (best)1
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Oct 22, 2024
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Apr 30, 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
  • Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3 or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Mistral Medium 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on price. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 wins on 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 Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Mistral Medium 3 is cheaper at $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 $0.80 per million tokens for Mistral Medium 3 versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (7.5× 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 Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.5–135.6 vs 129.2–137.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — 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 and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 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?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 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 Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192 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. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Mistral Medium 3 and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 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.

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

Related comparisons