Ling 3.0 Flash VL vs Mistral Medium 3
Ling 3.0 Flash VL leads Mistral Medium 3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 24.6 to 9.0, and Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs 11.1x less per output token ($0.18 vs $2.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 4 benchmarks have a result for both.
Ling 3.0 Flash VL or Mistral Medium 3: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Ling 3.0 Flash VL for output tokens 11.1x cheaper ($0.18 vs $2.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 4
- Ling 3.0 Flash VL only
- 3
- Mistral Medium 3 only
- 53
- Like-for-like categories
- 3 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Ling 3.0 Flash VL
Ling 3.0 Flash VL leads, 24.6 against 9.0.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Ling 3.0 Flash VL has a AA Agentic Index result, 28.7.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Mistral Medium 3 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1079.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 131K tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash VL
Ling 3.0 Flash VL $0.0001, Mistral Medium 3 $0.0014 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Ling 3.0 Flash VL not benchmarked, Mistral Medium 3 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 47.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Ling 3.0 Flash VL 78.3% against Mistral Medium 3 31.3%, 47.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Ling 3.0 Flash VL $0.18 against Mistral Medium 3 $2.00 per million output tokens, 11.1x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 131K tokens.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Bars | Mistral Medium 3 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 4 | 0 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 57.0 | Not measured | Only Ling 3.0 Flash VL measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 40.0% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| SciCode | 44.2% | Not measured | Only Ling 3.0 Flash VL measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1385 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1385 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 37 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 24.6 | 9.0 | Ling 3.0 Flash VL |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 134.0 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 28.7 | Not measured | Only Ling 3.0 Flash VL measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 24.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.2% | 57.8% | Ling 3.0 Flash VL |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 22.0% | 4.1% | Ling 3.0 Flash VL |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1364 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1342 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1374 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1155 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1165 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 30.3 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 30.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1353 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1354 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 76.0% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1381 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1381 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1384 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1352 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1079 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1022 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1017 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1034 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1083 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1068 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 39.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.3% | 31.3% | Ling 3.0 Flash VL |
| DTBench | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1370 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1338 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1343 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1157 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1385 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1353 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1374 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1377 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1316 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1304 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1368 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1364 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1359 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1371 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1384 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1360 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1352 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1335 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1172 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1161 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1154 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1145 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1094 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1141 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1146 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | inclusionAI Ling 3.0 Flash VL | Mistral Medium 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | inclusionAI | Mistral AI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | September 10, 2026 | May 7, 2025 |
| Context window | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.06 | $0.40 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.18 | $2.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Ling 3.0 Flash VL better than Mistral Medium 3 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Ling 3.0 Flash VL for output tokens 11.1x cheaper ($0.18 vs $2.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Ling 3.0 Flash VL or Mistral Medium 3?
Ling 3.0 Flash VL costs $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.18 per million output tokens; Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 and $2.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Ling 3.0 Flash VL or Mistral Medium 3?
Neither: both take 131K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Ling 3.0 Flash VL vs Mistral Medium 3 comparison based on?
4 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Ling 3.0 Flash VL's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Mistral Medium 3's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.