Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mistral Small 3
Mistral Medium 3.5 leads Mistral Small 3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 14.2 to 6.7, and Mistral Small 3 costs 93.8x less per output token ($0.08 vs $7.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 31 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Medium 3.5 or Mistral Small 3: which to pick
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a coding score, 25.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mistral Small 3 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mistral Small 3 for output tokens 93.8x cheaper ($0.08 vs $7.50 per million).
- Shared results
- 31
- Mistral Medium 3.5 only
- 50
- Mistral Small 3 only
- 5
- 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 Medium 3.5 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mistral Medium 3.5
Mistral Medium 3.5 leads, 14.2 against 6.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a AA Agentic Index result, 7.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a GPQA Diamond result, 34.9%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a MMLU Pro result, 75.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1142.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Mistral Medium 3.5
Mistral Medium 3.5 takes 262K tokens against 33K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 3
Mistral Medium 3.5 $0.0053, Mistral Small 3 $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has the number, $6.02.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Medium 3.5 25.5 from 3 benchmarks, Mistral Small 3 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 74.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: Mistral Medium 3.5 94.2% against Mistral Small 3 19.6%, 74.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Medium 3.5 $7.50 against Mistral Small 3 $0.08 per million output tokens, 93.8x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Medium 3.5 takes 262K tokens, Mistral Small 3 33K.
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 Medium 3.5 | Bars | Mistral Small 3 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 16 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 31 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1264 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 46.9 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 66.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 2.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 5.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 39.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 25.2% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| SciCode | 40.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 764.0 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1460 | 1246 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1458 | 1248 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1254 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1308 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 14.2 | 6.7 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 141.4 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 7.0 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 32.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 4.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 9.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 11.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 94.2% | 19.6% | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 34.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 74.8% | 46.2% | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 13.8% | 3.8% | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1436 | 1233 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1432 | 1202 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1445 | 1243 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1254 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1230 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 41.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 4.3 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 4.3% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| ProofBench | 9.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1431 | 1240 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1440 | 1243 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 75.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 44.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 58.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 68.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 28.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 33.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 65.2% | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1428 | 1235 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1409 | 1215 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1437 | 1219 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1426 | 1205 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1142 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1076 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1079 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1120 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1060 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1121 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 949 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1062 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index160
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 37.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 67.7% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 34.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| IFBench | 68.8% | 26.4% | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 69.3% | 0.0% | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| DTBench | 75.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMCA | 26.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 26.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1421 | 1234 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1415 | 1214 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1374 | 1194 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Vision | 1222 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1433 | 1256 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1404 | 1198 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1444 | 1204 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1453 | 1211 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1111 | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1384 | 1188 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1448 | 1204 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1411 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1395 | 1216 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1430 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1423 | 1217 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1415 | 1246 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1384 | 1214 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1382 | 1184 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1240 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1244 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1233 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1216 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1198 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 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 Small 3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mistral Small 3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mistral Small 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 Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | April 30, 2026 | January 30, 2025 |
| Context window | 262K | 33K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.50 | $0.05 |
| Output $/Mtok | $7.50 | $0.08 |
| Coding index | 25.5 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $6.02 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Medium 3.5 better than Mistral Small 3 for coding?
Only Mistral Medium 3.5 has a coding score, 25.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mistral Small 3 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mistral Small 3 for output tokens 93.8x cheaper ($0.08 vs $7.50 per million).
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens; Mistral Small 3 costs $0.05 and $0.08. Cost per solved task is known for Mistral Medium 3.5 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Medium 3.5, with 262K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mistral Small 3 comparison based on?
31 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mistral Medium 3.5's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Mistral Small 3's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.