Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Medium 3
Mistral Large 4 leads Mistral Medium 3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 38.4 to 9.0, and Mistral Medium 3 costs 2.1x less per output token ($2.00 vs $4.18 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 40 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Medium 3: which to pick
Only Mistral Large 4 has a coding score, 56.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mistral Medium 3 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mistral Medium 3 for output tokens 2.1x cheaper ($2.00 vs $4.18 per million).
- Shared results
- 40
- Mistral Large 4 only
- 41
- Mistral Medium 3 only
- 17
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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
Only Mistral Large 4 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 leads, 38.4 against 9.0.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 leads, 1258 against 1079.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 takes 1.05M tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Medium 3
Mistral Large 4 $0.0034, Mistral Medium 3 $0.0014 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Large 4 56.4 from 5 benchmarks, Mistral Medium 3 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Web design, 25.8 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Mistral Large 4 81.3% against Mistral Medium 3 31.3%, 50.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Large 4 $4.18 against Mistral Medium 3 $2.00 per million output tokens, 2.1x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Large 4 takes 1.05M tokens, Mistral Medium 3 131K.
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 | Mistral Large 4 | Bars | Mistral Medium 3 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 6 | 0 | ||
| General | 19 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 40 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 60.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1543 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 27.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 78.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 30.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 45.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 33.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 14.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 40.0% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| SciCode | 54.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| FrontierCode | 39.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1213.2 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1478 | 1385 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1467 | 1385 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1559 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1487 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 38.4 | 9.0 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.0 | 134.0 | Mistral Large 4 |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | 28.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 8.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 11.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 54.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 30.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 31.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 17.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 56.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 67.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 24.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 83.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 12.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 57.8% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 35.0% | 4.1% | Mistral Large 4 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 88.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 33.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 17.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1444 | 1364 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1444 | 1342 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1442 | 1374 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1288 | 1155 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1165 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | 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 |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 98.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 58.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 26.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ProofBench | 10.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1469 | 1353 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1462 | 1354 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 40.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 76.0% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 20.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1448 | 1381 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1433 | 1381 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1425 | 1384 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1439 | 1352 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1258 | 1079 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1275 | 1024 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1226 | 1018 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1274 | 1034 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1253 | 1084 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1259 | 1069 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1233 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1202 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench design | 65.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index190
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 80.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 39.3% | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 81.3% | 31.3% | Mistral Large 4 |
| DTBench | 88.2% | 62.3% | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMCA | 35.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 28.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 20.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1431 | 1370 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1422 | 1338 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1363 | 1343 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision | 1272 | 1157 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1433 | 1385 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1422 | 1353 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1492 | 1374 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1377 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1415 | 1316 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1304 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1492 | 1368 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1455 | 1364 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1417 | 1359 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1371 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1435 | 1384 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1428 | 1360 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1386 | 1352 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1378 | 1335 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1283 | 1172 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1161 | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1284 | 1154 | Mistral Large 4 |
| 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 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 4 | 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
Mistral Medium 3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mistral Medium 3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mistral Medium 3 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 | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Medium 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 6, 2026 | May 7, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.36 | $0.40 |
| Output $/Mtok | $4.18 | $2.00 |
| Coding index | 56.4 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Large 4 better than Mistral Medium 3 for coding?
Only Mistral Large 4 has a coding score, 56.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mistral Medium 3 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mistral Medium 3 for output tokens 2.1x cheaper ($2.00 vs $4.18 per million).
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Medium 3?
Mistral Large 4 costs $1.36 per million input tokens and $4.18 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, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Medium 3?
Mistral Large 4, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Medium 3 comparison based on?
40 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Mistral Large 4's coding index rests on 5 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.