Magistral Small 2506 vs Mistral Medium 3 Instruct
Magistral Small 2506 (2025) and Mistral Medium 3 Instruct (2025) are frontier reasoning models from MistralAI. Magistral Small 2506 ships a 128k-token context window, while Mistral Medium 3 Instruct ships a 128k-token context window. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads. It focuses on practical selection signals rather than broad model-family marketing.
Mistral Medium 3 Instruct is safer overall; choose Magistral Small 2506 when reasoning depth matters.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Magistral Small 2506 | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps | multimodal apps and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Long context | Long context and Vision |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | - | $2/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 1 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Magistral Small 2506 uniquely exposes Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Magistral Small 2506 for Long context.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct uniquely exposes Vision and Multimodal in local model data.
- 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.
Magistral Small 2506
Unavailable
No complete token price in local provider data
Mistral Medium 3 Instruct
$820
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Mistral AI Studio
Cost delta unavailable until both models have sourced input and output token prices.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Check replacement coverage for Reasoning before moving production traffic.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct adds Vision and Multimodal in local capability data.
- Provider overlap exists on NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision and Multimodal before moving production traffic.
- Magistral Small 2506 adds Reasoning in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-06-10 | 2025-10-01 |
| Context window | 128k | 128k |
| Parameters | 24B | — |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Apache 2.0OSI-approved | Proprietary |
| Openness | Open source | Proprietary |
| Weights | Unknown | Not released |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: conditional |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-06 | 2025-03 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Magistral Small 2506 | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | - | $0.40/1M tokens |
| Output price | - | $2/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Magistral Small 2506 | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | Yes |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | No | No |
| Code execution | No | 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.