GPT-4 vs Mistral Medium 3 Instruct
GPT-4 (2023) and Mistral Medium 3 Instruct (2025) are compact production models from OpenAI and MistralAI. GPT-4 ships a 8k-token context window, while Mistral Medium 3 Instruct ships a 128k-token context window. On pricing, Mistral Medium 3 Instruct costs $0.40/1M input tokens versus $30/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Mistral Medium 3 Instruct is ~7400% cheaper at $0.40/1M; pay for GPT-4 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | GPT-4 | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | multimodal apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production | multimodal apps and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, Agents, and Vision | Long context and Vision |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $60/1M tokens | $2/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 4 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- GPT-4 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- GPT-4 uniquely exposes JSON / Tool use, Structured outputs, and Code execution in local model data.
- Local decision data tags GPT-4 for Coding, Agents, and Vision.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $2/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags Mistral Medium 3 Instruct for Long context and Vision.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
GPT-4
$39,000
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenAI API
Mistral Medium 3 Instruct
$820
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Mistral AI Studio
Estimated monthly gap: $38,180. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for GPT-4 and Mistral Medium 3 Instruct; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct is $58/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for JSON / Tool use, Structured outputs, and Code execution before moving production traffic.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Mistral Medium 3 Instruct and GPT-4; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- GPT-4 is $58/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- GPT-4 adds JSON / Tool use, Structured outputs, and Code execution in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2023-03-14 | 2025-10-01 |
| Context window | 8k | 128k |
| Parameters | 1.76T (8x222B MoE)* | — |
| Architecture | Mixture of Experts | Decoder Only |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Openness | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Weights | Not released | Not released |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2021-09 | 2025-03 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | GPT-4 | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $30/1M tokens | $0.40/1M tokens |
| Output price | $60/1M tokens | $2/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | GPT-4 | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-06-15. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.