Mistral SmallvsMistral Medium
Mistral AI vs Mistral AI — Side-by-side model comparison
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Metric | Mistral Small | Mistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Arena Rank | #19 | #16 |
| Context Window | 32K | 128K |
| Input Pricing | $0.20/1M tokens | $0.40/1M tokens |
| Output Pricing | $0.60/1M tokens | $2.00/1M tokens |
| Parameters | 22B | Undisclosed |
| Open Source | Yes | No |
| Best For | Fast inference, cost-effective tasks, chat | Enterprise tasks, European languages |
| Release Date | Sep 18, 2024 | Jan 15, 2025 |
Mistral Small
Mistral Small, developed by Mistral AI, is a compact 22 billion parameter model with a 32K token context window optimized for fast inference and low deployment costs. The model handles coding, summarization, classification, and conversational tasks while maintaining the quality standards established by the Mistral model family. Its small footprint makes it suitable for edge deployment, cost-sensitive production applications, and use cases requiring low-latency responses. Priced at $0.20 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens, it offers affordable access to Mistral's technology. As an open-source model, it can also be self-hosted without API costs. Mistral Small ranks #19 on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, demonstrating competitive performance for its compact size and establishing it as a strong option for budget-conscious deployments.
View Mistral AI profile →Mistral Medium
Mistral Medium, developed by Mistral AI, is a mid-tier model with a 128K token context window designed for enterprise applications requiring balanced performance and cost. The model handles code generation, structured data extraction, summarization, and multilingual tasks with particular strength in European languages including French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Built in Paris with EU data handling practices, it appeals to organizations prioritizing data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. Priced at $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens, it offers competitive pricing for its capability tier. Mistral Medium ranks #16 on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, reflecting solid mid-range performance. It serves as a practical production choice for workloads that need more capability than Mistral Small but do not require the full power of Mistral Large.
View Mistral AI profile →Key Differences: Mistral Small vs Mistral Medium
Mistral Medium ranks higher in arena benchmarks (#16) indicating stronger overall performance.
Mistral Small is 3.0x cheaper on average, making it the better choice for high-volume applications.
Mistral Medium supports a larger context window (128K), allowing it to process longer documents in a single request.
Mistral Small is open-source (free to self-host and fine-tune) while Mistral Medium is proprietary (API-only access).
When to use Mistral Small
- +Budget is a concern and you need cost efficiency
- +You need to self-host or fine-tune the model
- +Your use case involves fast inference, cost-effective tasks, chat
When to use Mistral Medium
- +You need the highest quality output based on arena rankings
- +Quality matters more than cost
- +You need to process long documents (128K context)
- +You prefer a managed API without infrastructure overhead
- +Your use case involves enterprise tasks, european languages
Cost Analysis
At current pricing, Mistral Small is 3.0x more affordable than Mistral Medium. For a typical enterprise workload processing 100M tokens per month:
Mistral Small monthly cost
$40
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
Mistral Medium monthly cost
$120
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
The Verdict
Mistral Small wins our head-to-head comparison with 3 out of 5 category wins. It's the stronger choice for fast inference, cost-effective tasks, chat, though Mistral Medium holds an edge in enterprise tasks, european languages.
Last compared: April 2026 · Data sourced from public benchmarks and official pricing pages