Mistral Medium 3 vs Mistral Small 4
Mistral Small 4 leads Mistral Medium 3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 11.3 to 9.0, and Mistral Small 4 costs 3.3x less per output token ($0.60 vs $2.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 8 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Medium 3 or Mistral Small 4: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mistral Medium 3 for work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 8
- Mistral Medium 3 only
- 49
- Mistral Small 4 only
- 7
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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
Mistral Small 4
Mistral Small 4 leads, 11.3 against 9.0.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Mistral Small 4 has a AA Agentic Index result, 0.8.
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
Mistral Small 4
Mistral Small 4 takes 262K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 4
Mistral Medium 3 $0.0014, Mistral Small 4 $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Medium 3 not benchmarked, Mistral Small 4 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 17.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run): Mistral Medium 3 57.8% against Mistral Small 4 76.9%, 19.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Medium 3 $2.00 against Mistral Small 4 $0.60 per million output tokens, 3.3x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Medium 3 takes 131K tokens, Mistral Small 4 262K.
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 | Bars | Mistral Small 4 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 0 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 8 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 26.6 | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 38.8% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.8% | 17.4% | Mistral Small 4 |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 497.6 | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1385 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 9.0 | 11.3 | Mistral Small 4 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 134.0 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 0.8 | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 24.3% | 41.2% | Mistral Small 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 57.8% | 76.9% | Mistral Small 4 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.1% | 9.9% | Mistral Small 4 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1364 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1342 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1155 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1165 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | Not measured | 40.5% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 30.3 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 30.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1353 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1354 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 76.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1381 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1381 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1384 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1352 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1079 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1024 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1018 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1034 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1084 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1069 | Not measured | 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 index03
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 39.3% | 48.2% | Mistral Small 4 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 31.3% | 49.7% | Mistral Small 4 |
| DTBench | 62.3% | 70.9% | Mistral Small 4 |
| LMCA | Not measured | 20.6% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1370 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1338 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1343 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1157 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1385 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1353 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1374 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1377 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1316 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1304 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1368 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1364 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1359 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1371 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1384 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1360 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1352 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1335 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1172 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1161 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1154 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1145 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1094 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1141 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1146 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Mistral Small 4 | 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 4 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mistral Small 4 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mistral Small 4 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 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | May 7, 2025 | March 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.40 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.60 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Medium 3 better than Mistral Small 4 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mistral Medium 3 for work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens; Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15 and $0.60. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Medium 3 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Medium 3 vs Mistral Small 4 comparison based on?
8 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Mistral Medium 3's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Mistral Small 4's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.