Mistral Medium 3 vs Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads Mistral Medium 3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 43.7 to 9.0, and Mistral Medium 3 costs 1.4x less per output token ($2.00 vs $2.70 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 33 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Medium 3 or Step 5 Preview: which to pick
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 61.1 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 1.4x cheaper ($2.00 vs $2.70 per million).
- Shared results
- 33
- Mistral Medium 3 only
- 24
- Step 5 Preview only
- 28
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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 Step 5 Preview has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview leads, 43.7 against 9.0.
Same board, both measured
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
Step 5 Preview
Step 5 Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Medium 3
Mistral Medium 3 $0.0014, Step 5 Preview $0.0024 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Medium 3 not benchmarked, Step 5 Preview 61.1 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 34.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Mistral Medium 3 31.3% against Step 5 Preview 88.3%, 57.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Medium 3 $2.00 against Step 5 Preview $2.70 per million output tokens, 1.4x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Medium 3 takes 131K tokens, Step 5 Preview 1.05M.
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 | Step 5 Preview | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 6 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 18 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 33 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1567 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 39.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 58.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1385 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | 1473 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1583 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1556 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1550 | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 9.0 | 43.7 | Step 5 Preview |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 134.0 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 24.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 27.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.7% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 27.3% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 57.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 29.6% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 24.3% | Not measured | 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 index06
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 83.8% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 57.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.1% | 46.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1364 | 1461 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1342 | 1485 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1155 | 1308 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1165 | 1265 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | 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 |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1353 | 1458 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1354 | 1460 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 76.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1381 | 1454 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1381 | 1439 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1384 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1352 | 1435 | Step 5 Preview |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | 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 |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index018
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 63.5% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.1% | Only Step 5 Preview measured |
| IFBench | 39.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 31.3% | 88.3% | Step 5 Preview |
| DTBench | 62.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1370 | 1440 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1338 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1343 | 1409 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision | 1157 | 1265 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: English | 1385 | 1447 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1353 | 1428 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1374 | 1500 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: German | 1377 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1316 | 1383 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1304 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1368 | 1438 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1364 | 1441 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1359 | 1433 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1371 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1384 | 1437 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1360 | 1449 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1352 | 1425 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1335 | 1412 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1172 | 1290 | Step 5 Preview |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1161 | Not measured | Only Mistral Medium 3 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1154 | 1282 | Step 5 Preview |
| 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 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3 | Step 5 Preview | 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 Medium 3 | StepFun Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | May 7, 2025 | October 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 131K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.40 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.00 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 61.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Medium 3 better than Step 5 Preview for coding?
Only Step 5 Preview has a coding score, 61.1 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 1.4x cheaper ($2.00 vs $2.70 per million).
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or Step 5 Preview?
Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview costs $1.00 and $2.70. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Medium 3 or Step 5 Preview?
Step 5 Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Medium 3 vs Step 5 Preview comparison based on?
33 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Mistral Medium 3's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Step 5 Preview's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.