Mistral Large 3 vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Data reconciled August 15, 2026
Short answer
Mistral Large 3 and Mistral Medium 3.5 each win on different axes — neither is simply cheaper or better across the board.
Mistral Large 3 is 3× cheaper on input.
Mistral Large 3 is 5× cheaper on output.
Reasoning mode is supported only by Mistral Medium 3.5.
Side by side
| Parameter | Mistral Large 3 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Input, $ per 1M tokens | $0.50 | $1.50 |
| Output, $ per 1M tokens | $1.50 | $7.50 |
| Cache read, $ per 1M | — | — |
| Context window | 262,144 | 262,144 |
| Max output | 262,144 | 262,144 |
| Vision | yes | yes |
| Tools | yes | yes |
| Reasoning | no | yes |
| Status | available | available |
What it costs on your own workload
A price gap per million tokens says little until your volumes are plugged in: on a long fixed system prompt the winner is the model with cheap cache reads, not the one with a cheap input rate. Run Mistral Large 3 and Mistral Medium 3.5 against your own numbers.
Open the cost calculatorWhat is deliberately absent
We do not compare answer quality and we do not reprint third-party benchmarks. We have no quality measurements of our own, and external tables go stale faster than prices while being compiled, almost always, by someone with a stake in the result. What is here is only what we reconcile ourselves every day: prices, limits and supported capabilities.