API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewMistral Medium 3.5 vs GPT-5.4 Nano

Pick GPT-5.4 Nano when budget and context both matter.

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

Budget verdict

Pick GPT-5.4 Nano when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.4 Nano is estimated at $0.82 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $4.42 (84.3% lower).

Cost-first pickGPT-5.4 Nano
Context-first pickGPT-5.4 Nano
Sample savings$4.4284.3%
10x traffic gap$44.25

GPT-5.4 Nano is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $44.25. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

GPT-5.4 Nano stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickMistral Medium 3.5GPT-5.4 Nano
Input-heavy / RAG5M input + 500K outputGPT-5.4 Nano$11.25$1.62
Balanced workload1M input + 1M outputGPT-5.4 Nano$9$1.45
Output-heavy chatbot1M input + 5M outputGPT-5.4 Nano$39$6.45
Cheaper input GPT-5.4 Nano $1.5 vs $0.2 / 1M

GPT-5.4 Nano is $1.3 cheaper per 1M input tokens (86.7% lower; 7.5x difference).

Cheaper output GPT-5.4 Nano $7.5 vs $1.25 / 1M

GPT-5.4 Nano is $6.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (83.3% lower; 6x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.4 Nano 262.14K vs 400K

GPT-5.4 Nano has 137.86K more context (1.53x larger).

Sample workload GPT-5.4 Nano $5.25 vs $0.82

GPT-5.4 Nano is $4.42 cheaper on the standard workload (84.3% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Mistral Medium 3.5 Calculating… Estimated API cost
GPT-5.4 Nano 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

GPT-5.4 Nano has the lower input price; GPT-5.4 Nano has the lower output price; GPT-5.4 Nano offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, GPT-5.4 Nano 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 $0.82 for GPT-5.4 Nano.

Best Fit

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose GPT-5.4 Nano when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes
  • On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.4 Nano is estimated at $0.82 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $4.42 (84.3% lower).
  • GPT-5.4 Nano is $4.42 cheaper on the standard workload (84.3% lower).
  • GPT-5.4 Nano is $1.3 cheaper per 1M input tokens (86.7% lower; 7.5x difference).
  • GPT-5.4 Nano is $6.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (83.3% lower; 6x difference).
  • GPT-5.4 Nano has 137.86K more context (1.53x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
FeatureNewMistral Medium 3.5
(Mistral)
GPT-5.4 Nano
(OpenAI)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M
$1.5$0.2
Completion Price
per 1M tokens
$7.5$1.25
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output
$5.25$0.82
Context Window262.14K400K
Release Date

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionGPT-5.4 NanoOn the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GPT-5.4 Nano is estimated at $0.82 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $4.42 (84.3% lower).
High-volume input processingGPT-5.4 NanoLower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsGPT-5.4 NanoLower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workGPT-5.4 NanoA 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.
Larger context near this budget
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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OpenAI catalog

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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...

GPT-5.4 Nano

GPT-5.4 nano is the most lightweight and cost-efficient variant of the GPT-5.4 family, optimized for speed-critical and high-volume tasks. It supports text and image inputs and is designed for low-latency...