API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewMistral Medium 3.5 vs NewGrok 4.3

Pick Grok 4.3 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T15:08:08Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-26T19:08:13Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Grok 4.3 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Grok 4.3 is estimated at $2.5 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $2.75 (52.4% lower).

Cost-first pickGrok 4.3

Context-first pickGrok 4.3

Sample savings$2.7552.4%

10x traffic gap$27.5

Grok 4.3 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $27.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Grok 4.3 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Mistral Medium 3.5	Grok 4.3
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Grok 4.3	$11.25	$7.5
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Grok 4.3	$9	$3.75
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Grok 4.3	$39	$13.75

Cheaper input Grok 4.3 $1.5 vs $1.25 / 1M

Grok 4.3 is $0.25 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).

Cheaper output Grok 4.3 $7.5 vs $2.5 / 1M

Grok 4.3 is $5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (66.7% lower; 3x difference).

Larger context Grok 4.3 262.14K vs 1M

Grok 4.3 has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).

Sample workload Grok 4.3 $5.25 vs $2.5

Grok 4.3 is $2.75 cheaper on the standard workload (52.4% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Mistral Medium 3.5 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Grok 4.3 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

Grok 4.3 has the lower input price; Grok 4.3 has the lower output price; Grok 4.3 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Grok 4.3 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 $2.5 for Grok 4.3.

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 Grok 4.3 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, Grok 4.3 is estimated at $2.5 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $2.75 (52.4% lower).
Grok 4.3 is $2.75 cheaper on the standard workload (52.4% lower).
Grok 4.3 is $0.25 cheaper per 1M input tokens (16.7% lower; 1.2x difference).
Grok 4.3 is $5 cheaper per 1M output tokens (66.7% lower; 3x difference).
Grok 4.3 has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewMistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral)	NewGrok 4.3 (xAI)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$1.5	$1.25
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$7.5	$2.5
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$5.25	$2.5
Context Window	262.14K	1M
Release Date	2026-04-30	2026-04-30
Popularity	#47	#50

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Grok 4.3	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Grok 4.3 is estimated at $2.5 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $2.75 (52.4% lower).
High-volume input processing	Grok 4.3	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Grok 4.3	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Grok 4.3	A 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

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

Mistral catalog

Review all tracked Mistral models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

Open Mistral models

xAI catalog

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

Open xAI models

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...

Grok 4.3

Grok 4.3 is a reasoning model from xAI. It accepts text and image inputs with text output, and is suited for agentic workflows, instruction-following tasks, and applications requiring high factual...