API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewMistral Medium 3.5 vs Claude Opus Latest

Pick Mistral Medium 3.5 for lower cost; pick Claude Opus Latest only if the larger context window matters more.

Pricing data updated:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Mistral Medium 3.5 for lower cost; pick Claude Opus Latest only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Medium 3.5 is estimated at $5.25 vs $17.5 for Claude Opus Latest, saving $12.25 (70% lower).

Cost-first pickMistral Medium 3.5
Context-first pickClaude Opus Latest
Sample savings$12.2570%
10x traffic gap$122.5

Claude Opus Latest has more context, but Mistral Medium 3.5 saves $12.25 on the standard workload. 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

Same prices, different token mixes.

Mistral Medium 3.5 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickMistral Medium 3.5Claude Opus Latest
Input-heavy / RAG5M input + 500K outputMistral Medium 3.5$11.25$37.5
Balanced workload1M input + 1M outputMistral Medium 3.5$9$30
Output-heavy chatbot1M input + 5M outputMistral Medium 3.5$39$130
Cheaper input Mistral Medium 3.5 $1.5 vs $5 / 1M

Mistral Medium 3.5 is $3.5 cheaper per 1M input tokens (70% lower; 3.33x difference).

Cheaper output Mistral Medium 3.5 $7.5 vs $25 / 1M

Mistral Medium 3.5 is $17.5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (70% lower; 3.33x difference).

Larger context Claude Opus Latest 262.14K vs 1M

Claude Opus Latest has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).

Sample workload Mistral Medium 3.5 $5.25 vs $17.5

Mistral Medium 3.5 is $12.25 cheaper on the standard workload (70% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Mistral Medium 3.5 Calculating… Estimated API cost
Claude Opus Latest Calculating… Estimated API cost
Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

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

Verdict

Mistral Medium 3.5 has the lower input price; Mistral Medium 3.5 has the lower output price; Claude Opus Latest 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 Latest.

Best Fit

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Choose Claude Opus Latest when you care most about larger context window.

Decision Notes
  • On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Medium 3.5 is estimated at $5.25 vs $17.5 for Claude Opus Latest, 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).
  • Claude Opus Latest has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
FeatureNewMistral Medium 3.5
(Mistral)		Claude Opus Latest
(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 Window262.14K1M
Release Date

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionMistral Medium 3.5On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Medium 3.5 is estimated at $5.25 vs $17.5 for Claude Opus Latest, saving $12.25 (70% lower).
High-volume input processingMistral Medium 3.5Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsMistral Medium 3.5Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workClaude Opus LatestA larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps
  • 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.
Popular competitors
  • No popular competitor is currently available.

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Mistral catalog

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Anthropic catalog

Check other Anthropic models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

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Mistral Medium 3.5

Mistral Medium 3.5 is a dense 128B instruction-following model from Mistral AI. It supports text and image inputs with text output, and is designed for agentic workflows, coding, and complex...

Claude Opus Latest

This model always redirects to the latest model in the Claude Opus family.