DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Mistral Medium 3.5 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Medium 3.5 scores 2.8 points higher (14.2 vs 11.4) but costs 2.7× as much to run the benchmark ($1264 vs $461; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25).
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 14.2 | +24.6% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 24.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $1,263.80 | +174.3% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 2.7× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.14s | 17.90s | −11.1% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 11.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $1.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 24.6% more intelligence, 174.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 11.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Mistral Medium 3.5Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/mistral-medium-3-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/mistral-medium-3-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill