Model Comparison

LongCat-Flash-Lite vs Magistral MediumWhich is better in 2026?

Magistral Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: LongCat-Flash-Lite vs Magistral Medium — which is better?

LongCat-Flash-Lite (by Meituan) and Magistral Medium (by Mistral AI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

LongCat-Flash-Lite outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Magistral Medium is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2024, AIME 2025, GPQA). Magistral Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose LongCat-Flash-Lite if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2026

Choose Magistral Medium if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

LongCat-Flash-Lite outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Magistral Medium is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2024, AIME 2025, GPQA).

Magistral Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

44.5B diff

LongCat-Flash-Lite has 44.5B more parameters than Magistral Medium, making it 185.4% larger.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
68.5Bparameters
Mistral AI
Magistral Medium
24.0Bparameters
68.5B
LongCat-Flash-Lite
24.0B
Magistral Medium

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only LongCat-Flash-Lite specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only LongCat-Flash-Lite specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Input256,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Magistral Medium
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Magistral Medium supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Lite does not.

Magistral Medium can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Magistral Medium

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Lite is licensed under MIT, while Magistral Medium uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

MIT

Open weights

Magistral Medium

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-Flash-Lite was released on 2026-02-05, while Magistral Medium was released on 2025-06-10.

LongCat-Flash-Lite is 8 months newer than Magistral Medium.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

Feb 5, 2026

5 months ago

8mo newer
Magistral Medium

Jun 10, 2025

1.1 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Magistral Medium has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while LongCat-Flash-Lite'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 LongCat-Flash-Lite's cutoff date.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

—

Magistral Medium

Jun 2025

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Meituan
Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Mistral AI
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher AIME 2024 score (73.6% vs 72.2%)
Higher AIME 2025 score (64.9% vs 63.2%)
Higher GPQA score (70.8% vs 66.8%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LongCat-Flash-Lite and Magistral Medium side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LongCat-Flash-Lite
✓ Preferred
Magistral Medium
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Mistral AI
Magistral Medium

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Lite vs Magistral Medium.

Which is better, LongCat-Flash-Lite or Magistral Medium?

Magistral Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. LongCat-Flash-Lite is made by Meituan and Magistral Medium is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does LongCat-Flash-Lite compare to Magistral Medium in benchmarks?

LongCat-Flash-Lite scores MATH-500: 96.8%, MMLU: 85.5%, CMMLU: 82.5%, MMLU-Pro: 78.3%, Tau2 Retail: 73.1%. Magistral Medium scores AIME 2024: 73.6%, GPQA: 70.8%, AIME 2025: 64.9%, LiveCodeBench: 50.3%, Aider-Polyglot: 47.1%.

What are the context window sizes for LongCat-Flash-Lite and Magistral Medium?

LongCat-Flash-Lite supports 256K tokens and Magistral Medium supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between LongCat-Flash-Lite and Magistral Medium?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LongCat-Flash-Lite and Magistral Medium?

LongCat-Flash-Lite is developed by Meituan and Magistral Medium is developed by Mistral AI.

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