Mistral Large 3 vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Which is better for the money: Mistral Large 3 by Mistral 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 4.9 points higher (14.2 vs 9.3) but costs 27× as much to run the benchmark ($1264 vs $46.4; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when you need intelligence above 9.3, and Mistral Large 3 when 9.3 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Large 3 | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.3 | 14.2 | +52.7% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 52.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $46.41 | $1,263.80 | +2623.1% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 27× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 7.17s | 17.66s | +146.3% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 146.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.50 / $1.50 | $1.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mistral Large 3: 52.7% more intelligence, 2623.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 146.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Large 3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Mistral Large 3Mistral 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/mistral-large-3/mistral-medium-3-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-large-3/mistral-medium-3-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill