AI model comparison
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs o3 Mini
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Mistral
Mistral Medium 3.5
Mistral Medium 3.5 is a dense 128B instruction-following model from Mistral AI.
- Input / 1M
- $1.50
- Output / 1M
- $7.50
- Context
- 262K
OpenAI
o3 Mini
OpenAI o3-mini is a cost-efficient language model optimized for STEM reasoning tasks, particularly excelling in science, mathematics, and coding.
- Input / 1M
- $1.10
- Output / 1M
- $4.40
- Context
- 200K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
o3 Mini
1.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Mistral Medium 3.5
14.2 vs 12.5 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Mistral Medium 3.5
262K vs 200K tokens
Newer release
Mistral Medium 3.5
Released April 30, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Mistral Medium 3.514.2o3 Mini12.5Coding index
Mistral Medium 3.546.9o3 MiniNot availableAgentic index
Mistral Medium 3.57o3 MiniNot availablePricing
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs o3 Mini API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Mistral Medium 3.5 | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.50 | $1.10 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $7.50 | $4.40 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | $0.55 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.01 |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Mistral Medium 3.5$6.75o3 Mini$4.40Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Mistral Medium 3.5$75o3 Mini$50.60$34.10 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Mistral Medium 3.5$240o3 Mini$173.80$91.30 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Mistral Medium 3.5 | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | 210K tokens | 100K tokens |
| Input types | File, Image, Text | File, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, None | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | High | Not available |
| Release date | April 30, 2026 | January 31, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Mistral Medium 3.5 | o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Not supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Mistral Medium 3.5View full model details- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs o4 Mini
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs o1
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Command A
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs GPT-4.1
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
- Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Sonar Reasoning Pro
o3 MiniView full model details- o3 Mini vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- o3 Mini vs o4 Mini
- o3 Mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- o3 Mini vs R1 0528
- o3 Mini vs Command A
- o3 Mini vs GLM 4.5
- o3 Mini vs GPT-4.1
- o3 Mini vs Kimi K2 0711
- o3 Mini vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
- o3 Mini vs o1-pro
- o3 Mini vs Sonar Reasoning Pro
- o3 Mini vs o3 Mini High
- o3 Mini vs GPT-4.1 Mini
- o3 Mini vs GPT-4o (2024-11-20)
Our take
o3 Mini is 1.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Mistral Medium 3.5 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (14.2 vs 12.5). Mistral Medium 3.5 has the larger context window (262K vs 200K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Medium 3.5 or o3 Mini cheaper?
o3 Mini is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). o3 Mini costs $1.10 per 1M input tokens and $4.40 per 1M output tokens, while Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 per 1M input tokens and $7.50 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Mistral Medium 3.5 or o3 Mini?
Mistral Medium 3.5 supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 200K for o3 Mini.
Is Mistral Medium 3.5 smarter than o3 Mini?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Mistral Medium 3.5 scores 14.2 and o3 Mini scores 12.5, putting Mistral Medium 3.5 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Mistral Medium 3.5 and o3 Mini at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Mistral Medium 3.5 and o3 Mini answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Mistral Medium 3.5 and o3 Mini at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.