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Head-to-head comparison

Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 vs Mistral Medium 3.5

Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 (Mistral AI) and Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral AI) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 22 September 2026

As of 22 September 2026, Mistral Medium 3.5 holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#63 vs #252); and Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 if…

  • you want to self-host: Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 ships open weights while Mistral Medium 3.5 is api only.

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #63 against #252 (62.6 vs 5.1 points).
  • you want provider choice — 1 listed API providers against 0.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Mistral Medium 3.5 was listed 30 April 2026, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 11 December 2023.

Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 vs Mistral Medium 3.5: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 and Mistral Medium 3.5
FieldMistral 7B Instruct v0.2Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI
ModelCap Index position#252#63
Index score5.162.6
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokensUnlisted$1.50
Output price / 1M tokensUnlisted$7.50
Context window— tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens210K
API providers listed01
Weight accessOpen weightsAPI only
Input modalitiesTextText, Image, File
First listed11 December 202330 April 2026
PublisherMistral AIMistral AI

Evidence: 1 public benchmark observation across 1 board · 4 public benchmark observations across 4 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 vs Mistral Medium 3.5

Public benchmark boards where Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 or Mistral Medium 3.5 has a published result
BoardMistral 7B Instruct v0.2Mistral Medium 3.5Leads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)14791468–1490Only one result
LMArena AgentLMArena-10.9%-12.3%–-9.4%Only one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis14.2intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecifiedOnly one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis94.2%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Mistral Medium 3.5":reasoning=trueOnly one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis13.8%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Mistral Medium 3.5":reasoning=trueOnly one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 vs Mistral Medium 3.5: common questions

Is Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 better than Mistral Medium 3.5?

Mistral Medium 3.5 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 22 September 2026: #63 against #252. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals do not overlap, but the aggregate Index does not predict performance on every task; compare the relevant benchmark configurations before choosing.

Is Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 cheaper than Mistral Medium 3.5?

At least one of the two has no listed API price on ModelCap right now, so no price comparison is made.

Which has the bigger context window, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 or Mistral Medium 3.5?

Both publish a —-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 or Mistral Medium 3.5?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 and Mistral Medium 3.5 open-weight models?

Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2: Open weights. Mistral Medium 3.5: API only. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 and Mistral Medium 3.5?

ModelCap currently lists 0 API providers for Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 and 1 for Mistral Medium 3.5, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Mistral 7B Instruct v0.2 vs Mistral Medium 3.5 comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 22 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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