ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Mistral Medium 3

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 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

  2. 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

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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 Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Medium 3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5058
Price25%7654
Inputs & features15%6050
Context window10%2424
Overall100%55/10053/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Mistral Medium 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIMistral Medium 3Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.5134.1 (best)
ECI rank#132 of 148#117 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.5%59.5% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics5.8%32.2% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.229 (best)$0.40
Output$0.436 (best)$2.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.281 (best)$0.80
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—mistral-medium-2505
API providers25 (best)
ReleasedMar 17, 2025May 7, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJun 2024May 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 Small 3.1 24B$3.16
  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

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 Small 3.1 24B or Mistral Medium 3?

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 Small 3.1 24B and Mistral Medium 3 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 Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; Mistral Medium 3 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 Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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