Mistral Medium 3.5 is $3.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (70% lower; 3.33x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
NewMistral Medium 3.5 vs Claude Opus 4.5
Pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when budget and context both matter.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Medium 3.5 is estimated at $5.25 vs $17.5 for Claude Opus 4.5, saving $12.25 (70% lower).
Cost-first pickMistral Medium 3.5
Context-first pickMistral Medium 3.5
Sample savings$12.2570%
10x traffic gap$122.5
Mistral Medium 3.5 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $122.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Mistral Medium 3.5 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Claude Opus 4.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Mistral Medium 3.5 | $11.25 | $37.5 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Mistral Medium 3.5 | $9 | $30 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Mistral Medium 3.5 | $39 | $130 |
Mistral Medium 3.5 is $17.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (70% lower; 3.33x difference).
Mistral Medium 3.5 has 62.14K more context (1.31x larger).
Mistral Medium 3.5 is $12.25 cheaper on the standard workload (70% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Mistral Medium 3.5 has the lower input price; Mistral Medium 3.5 has the lower output price; Mistral Medium 3.5 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Mistral Medium 3.5 is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5 and $17.5 for Claude Opus 4.5.
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
Choose Claude Opus 4.5 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Medium 3.5 is estimated at $5.25 vs $17.5 for Claude Opus 4.5, saving $12.25 (70% lower).
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is $12.25 cheaper on the standard workload (70% lower).
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is $3.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (70% lower; 3.33x difference).
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is $17.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (70% lower; 3.33x difference).
- Mistral Medium 3.5 has 62.14K more context (1.31x larger).
| Feature | NewMistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral) | Claude Opus 4.5 (Anthropic) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $1.5 | $5 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $7.5 | $25 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $5.25 | $17.5 |
| Context Window | 262.14K | 200K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Mistral Medium 3.5 | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Medium 3.5 is estimated at $5.25 vs $17.5 for Claude Opus 4.5, saving $12.25 (70% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Mistral Medium 3.5 | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Mistral Nemo can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.04.
- Mistral Small 3 can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.15.
- Mistral Small 3.2 24B can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.17.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- GPT-5.5 offers 1.05M context with $20 sample workload cost.
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