AI model comparison
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs o4 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
o4 Mini
OpenAI o4-mini is a compact reasoning model in the o-series, optimized for fast, cost-efficient performance while retaining strong multimodal and agentic capabilities.
- 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
o4 Mini
1.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
o4 Mini
16.7 vs 14.2 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
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs o4 Mini API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.50 | $1.10 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $7.50 | $4.40 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | $0.28 |
| 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
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | 210K tokens | 100K tokens |
| Input types | File, Image, Text | File, Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, None | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | High | Not available |
| Release date | April 30, 2026 | April 16, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Our take
o4 Mini is 1.5x cheaper for a typical chat. o4 Mini scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (16.7 vs 14.2). 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 o4 Mini cheaper?
o4 Mini is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). o4 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 o4 Mini?
Mistral Medium 3.5 supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 200K for o4 Mini.
Is Mistral Medium 3.5 smarter than o4 Mini?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Mistral Medium 3.5 scores 14.2 and o4 Mini scores 16.7, putting o4 Mini 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 o4 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 o4 Mini answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Mistral Medium 3.5 and o4 Mini at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.