DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek or Mistral Medium 3.5 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Medium 3.5 scores 5.7 points higher (14.2 vs 8.5) but costs 50× as much to run the benchmark ($1264 vs $25.4; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 14.2 | +67.1% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 67.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $1,263.80 | +4881.5% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 50× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.89s | 17.96s | +51.1% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 51.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $1.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 67.1% more intelligence, 4881.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 51.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- 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 V3 (Dec '24)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-v3/mistral-medium-3-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3/mistral-medium-3-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill