# Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Mistral Small 3.2

> Mistral Medium 3.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.6 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.2 costs 23× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Medium 3.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-medium-3-5-vs-mistral-small-3-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 2

## Summary

- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Medium 3.5 scores higher in 3 categories and Mistral Small 3.2 in 1 category; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Mistral Medium 3.5 leads 58.6 to 45.1.
- Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.0938 / $0.25 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 256K.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 39.6 | 30.8 |
| Rank | 151 | 271 |
| Context | 262K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $1.50 | $0.0938 |
| Output $/M | $7.50 | $0.25 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 35.7 (#208)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1263 | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1461 | — |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 16.6 (#290)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 17.5 (#282)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 41.4% | 40.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 141.42 | 131.73 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 12.9% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 1% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1436 | — |

## Math

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 36.4 (#113)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 24.9 (#251)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 30.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1432 | — |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 39.3 (#123)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 26.8 (#249)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 49.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1431 | — |

## Multimodal

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 37.6 (#64)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1222 | — |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 52.1 (#93)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1405 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1443 | — |
| LMArena French | 1448 | — |
| LMArena German | 1453 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1387 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1396 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1406 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 74.7 (#87)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1414 | — |

## Long Context

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 43.2 (#101)
- Mistral Small 3.2: —

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1414 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Medium 3.5: 58.6 (#113)
- Mistral Small 3.2: 45.1 (#219)

| Benchmark | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1421 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1372 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1255 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 993 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1423 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Medium 3.5 better than Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Medium 3.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.6 to 30.8 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3.2 costs 23× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Medium 3.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper. It lists at $0.0938 per million input tokens and $0.25 per million output tokens; Mistral Medium 3.5 lists at $1.50 and $7.50.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Medium 3.5 does, with 262K tokens against 256K.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Medium 3.5 and Mistral Small 3.2 share?

2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Medium 3.5 has 22 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3.2 has 6.