Claude 3 Sonnet vs Magistral Medium
Magistral Medium leads the LLM Stats Score 13.1 to 1.7.
Anthropic · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Magistral Medium leads the overall LLM Stats Score 13.1 to 1.7, ranking #247 overall.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Magistral Medium wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude 3 Sonnet
- you want predictable pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output
Choose Magistral Medium
- overall performance matters — it scores 13.1 and ranks #247 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
11 reported for Claude 3 Sonnet · 6 for Magistral Medium
Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Magistral Medium is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Magistral Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Claude 3 Sonnet specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude 3 Sonnet specifies output context (200,000 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Claude 3 Sonnet and Magistral Medium support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude 3 Sonnet
Magistral Medium
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude 3 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Magistral Medium uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3 Sonnet was released on 2024-02-29, while Magistral Medium was released on 2025-06-10.
Magistral Medium is 16 months newer than Claude 3 Sonnet.
Feb 29, 2024
2.6 years ago
Jun 10, 2025
1.3 years ago
1.3yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Magistral Medium has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Claude 3 Sonnet's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Magistral Medium's training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude 3 Sonnet's cutoff date.
—
Jun 2025
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Sonnet and Magistral Medium side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3 Sonnet vs Magistral Medium.