Mistral Medium 3 vs ShieldGemma 9B
Mistral Medium 3 (2025) and ShieldGemma 9B (2024) are compact production models from MistralAI and Google DeepMind. Mistral Medium 3 ships a 128K-token context window, while ShieldGemma 9B ships a 8K-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 fits 16x more tokens; pick it for long-context work and ShieldGemma 9B for tighter calls.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Mistral Medium 3 | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | multimodal apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production | general production evaluation |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Classification |
| Context window | 128K | 8K |
| Cheapest output | $2/1M tokens | - |
| Provider routes | 5 tracked | 1 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Mistral Medium 3 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Mistral Medium 3 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Mistral Medium 3 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Mistral Medium 3 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Local decision data tags ShieldGemma 9B for Classification.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Mistral Medium 3
$820
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Mistral AI Studio
ShieldGemma 9B
Unavailable
No complete token price in local provider data
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 Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on NVIDIA NIM; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Mistral Medium 3 adds Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-05-01 | 2024-07-01 |
| Context window | 128K | 8K |
| Parameters | — | 9B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Proprietary | Gemma |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open weights |
| Weights | Not released | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Restricted | Restricted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-03 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Mistral Medium 3 | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.40/1M tokens | - |
| Output price | $2/1M tokens | - |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Mistral Medium 3 | ShieldGemma 9B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| 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.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on vision: Mistral Medium 3, multimodal input: Mistral Medium 3, JSON / Tool use: Mistral Medium 3, JSON / Tool use: Mistral Medium 3, structured outputs: Mistral Medium 3, and code execution: Mistral Medium 3. Both models share the core language-model surface, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
Pricing coverage is uneven: Mistral Medium 3 has $0.40/1M input tokens and ShieldGemma 9B has no token price sourced yet. Provider availability is 5 tracked routes versus 1. Treat unknown pricing as an integration gap, then verify the route you will actually call before estimating production spend.
Choose Mistral Medium 3 when coding workflow support, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose ShieldGemma 9B when provider fit are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Mistral Medium 3 or ShieldGemma 9B?
Mistral Medium 3 supports 128K tokens, while ShieldGemma 9B supports 8K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Is Mistral Medium 3 or ShieldGemma 9B open source?
Mistral Medium 3 is listed under Proprietary. ShieldGemma 9B is listed under Gemma. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Mistral Medium 3 or ShieldGemma 9B?
Mistral Medium 3 has the clearer documented vision signal in this comparison. If vision is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for multimodal input, Mistral Medium 3 or ShieldGemma 9B?
Mistral Medium 3 has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for JSON / Tool use, Mistral Medium 3 or ShieldGemma 9B?
Mistral Medium 3 has the clearer documented JSON / Tool use signal in this comparison. If JSON / Tool use is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Mistral Medium 3 and ShieldGemma 9B?
Mistral Medium 3 is available on NVIDIA NIM, Mistral AI Studio, Microsoft Foundry, OpenRouter, and GCP Vertex AI. ShieldGemma 9B is available on NVIDIA NIM. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-10-18. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.