Mistral Medium 3 Instruct vs Mistral Small 3
Mistral Medium 3 Instruct (2025) and Mistral Small 3 (2025) are compact production models from MistralAI. Mistral Medium 3 Instruct ships a 128k-token context window, while Mistral Small 3 ships a 33k-token context window. On pricing, Mistral Small 3 costs $0.10/1M input tokens versus $0.40/1M 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 Small 3 is ~300% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for Mistral Medium 3 Instruct only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | multimodal apps and provider-routed production | tool-calling agents and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Long context and Vision | Agents, Classification, and JSON / Tool use |
| Context window | 128k | 33k |
| Cheapest output | $2/1M tokens | $0.30/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 2 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- 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.
- Mistral Small 3 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.30/1M tokens.
- Mistral Small 3 uniquely exposes JSON / Tool use and Structured outputs in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Mistral Small 3 for Agents, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Mistral Medium 3 Instruct
$820
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Mistral AI Studio
Mistral Small 3
$155
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Together AI
Estimated monthly gap: $665. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Mistral Medium 3 Instruct and Mistral Small 3; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Mistral Small 3 is $1.70/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision and Multimodal before moving production traffic.
- Mistral Small 3 adds JSON / Tool use and Structured outputs in local capability data.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Mistral Small 3 and Mistral Medium 3 Instruct; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct is $1.70/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Check replacement coverage for JSON / Tool use and Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
- Mistral Medium 3 Instruct adds Vision and Multimodal in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-10-01 | 2025-01-01 |
| Context window | 128k | 33k |
| Parameters | — | 24B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open source |
| Weights | Not released | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-03 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.40/1M tokens | $0.10/1M tokens |
| Output price | $2/1M tokens | $0.30/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Mistral Medium 3 Instruct | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | No | Yes |
| 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: 2026-06-29. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.