Claude Sonnet 4 vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Mistral Medium 3.5 comes out ahead, 55 to 51 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4
51/100- ECI141.7
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context200K
- Our pick
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.5
55/100- ECI141.4
- Price$1.50 / $7.50
- Context262K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Mistral Medium 3.5 is our pick
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4 141.7 · Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4
- Lowest priceMistral Medium 3.5Mistral Medium 3.5 $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 4 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMistral Medium 3.5Mistral Medium 3.5 262,144 · Claude Sonnet 4 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 4Claude Sonnet 4: Text, Images, PDFs · Mistral Medium 3.5: Text, Images
- Self-hostingMistral Medium 3.5Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Claude Sonnet 4 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 68 | 67 |
| Price | 25% | 13 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Sonnet 4Anthropic | Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 141.7 (best) | 141.4 |
| ECI rank | #94 of 148 (best) | #95 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 79.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 71.1% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $3.00 | $1.50 (best) |
| Output | $15.00 | $7.50 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.15 |
| Blended (3:1) | $6.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 9 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeshigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | mistral-medium-2604 |
| API providers | 9 | 12 (best) |
| Released | May 22, 2025 | Apr 29, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 31, 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Sonnet 4$60.00
- Mistral Medium 3.5$30.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Sonnet 4 or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Claude Sonnet 4 (51). It leads on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4 or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is cheaper at $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Mistral Medium 3.5 versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4 (2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 4 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4 141.7 (#94 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4 (#95 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (139.2–142.9 vs 138.4–143.7), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 4 and Mistral Medium 3.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 4 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 3.5 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Sonnet 4. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 4 up to 64,000, Mistral Medium 3.5 up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Sonnet 4 accepts text, images and PDFs; Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts text and images. Claude Sonnet 4 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral Medium 3.5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 4 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the newest, released Apr 29, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4 came out May 22, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 4 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.
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