GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI 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
GPT-5.5 (Medium) scores 19.6 points higher (33.8 vs 14.2) but costs 1.7× as much to run the benchmark ($2095 vs $1264; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick GPT-5.5 (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mistral Medium 3.5.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.8 | 14.2 | −58.0% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 58.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,095.12 | $1,263.80 | −39.7% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 39.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.97s | 17.66s | +77.1% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 77.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $1.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs GPT-5.5 (Medium): 58.0% less intelligence, 39.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.5 (Medium)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/gpt-5-5-medium/mistral-medium-3-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/mistral-medium-3-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill