# Mistral Medium 3.1 vs Mistral Small 3

> Mistral Medium 3.1 and Mistral Small 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (31.5 vs 30.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-medium-3-1-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 1

## Summary

- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Mistral Medium 3.1 scores higher in 1 category and Mistral Small 3 in 1 category; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Mistral Medium 3.1 leads 55.6 to 32.4.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $2 for Mistral Medium 3.1.
- Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 31.5 | 30.9 |
| Rank | 260 | 268 |
| Context | 131K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $2 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Mistral Medium 3.1: —
- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1246 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Medium 3.1: 10.1 (#336)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 6.5% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| Thematic Generalization | 20.3% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.06 |

## Math

- Mistral Medium 3.1: —
- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1240 |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Medium 3.1: —
- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1202 |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Medium 3.1: —
- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1204 |
| LMArena French | — | 1202 |
| LMArena German | — | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1216 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Medium 3.1: —
- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1214 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Medium 3.1: —
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1246 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Medium 3.1: 55.6 (#140)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1476 | 707 |
| LMArena Text | — | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1217 |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Medium 3.1 better than Mistral Small 3?

Mistral Medium 3.1 and Mistral Small 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (31.5 vs 30.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3.1 or Mistral Small 3?

Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Mistral Medium 3.1 lists at $0.40 and $2.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Medium 3.1 does, with 131K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Medium 3.1 and Mistral Small 3 share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. Mistral Medium 3.1 has 3 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.