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Head-to-head comparison

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct

Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral AI) and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct (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 #226); Mixtral 8x22B Instruct is 1.3× cheaper per output token ($6.00/1M vs $7.50/1M); Mistral Medium 3.5 offers the longer context window (262K vs 66K tokens); and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #63 against #226 (62.6 vs 11.5 points).
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $1.50/1M against $2.00/1M.
  • you need the longer context window — 262K tokens against 66K.
  • Arena coding is your yardstick — 1479 against 1278.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Mistral Medium 3.5 was listed 30 April 2026, Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 17 April 2024.

Choose Mixtral 8x22B Instruct if…

  • API cost matters — $6.00/1M output tokens against $7.50/1M, about 1.3× cheaper.
  • you want to self-host: Mixtral 8x22B Instruct ships open weights while Mistral Medium 3.5 is api only.

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Mistral Medium 3.5 and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct
FieldMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AIMixtral 8x22B InstructMistral AI
ModelCap Index position#63#226
Index score62.611.5
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$1.50$2.00
Output price / 1M tokens$7.50$6.00
Context window262K tokens66K tokens
Max output tokens210K52K
API providers listed11
Weight accessAPI onlyOpen weights
Input modalitiesText, Image, FileText, File
First listed30 April 202617 April 2024
PublisherMistral AIMistral AI

Evidence: 4 public benchmark observations across 4 boards · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct

Public benchmark boards where Mistral Medium 3.5 or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct has a published result
BoardMistral Medium 3.5Mixtral 8x22B InstructLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)14791468–149012781269–1286Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena AgentLMArena-10.9%-12.3%–-9.4%—Only one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis14.2intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecified—Only one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis94.2%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Mistral Medium 3.5":reasoning=true—Only 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=true—Only 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 Medium 3.5 vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct: common questions

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 better than Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

Mistral Medium 3.5 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 22 September 2026: #63 against #226. 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 Medium 3.5 cheaper than Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

Mixtral 8x22B Instruct is cheaper on output tokens: $6.00/1M against $7.50/1M. Input tokens are $1.50/1M for Mistral Medium 3.5 and $2.00/1M for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $6.75 for Mistral Medium 3.5 versus $7.00 for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct. Mistral Medium 3.5 costs 3.6% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

Mistral Medium 3.5 has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 66K.

Which is better for coding, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

Arena coding: Mistral Medium 3.5 1479, Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 1278 — Mistral Medium 3.5 leads.

Are Mistral Medium 3.5 and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct open-weight models?

Mistral Medium 3.5: API only. Mixtral 8x22B Instruct: Open weights. 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 Medium 3.5 and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for Mistral Medium 3.5 and 1 for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 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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