Model Comparison

MAI-Thinking-1 vs Mistral Medium 3.5Which is better in 2026?

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Verdict: MAI-Thinking-1 vs Mistral Medium 3.5 — which is better?

MAI-Thinking-1 (by Microsoft) and Mistral Medium 3.5 (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.

MAI-Thinking-1 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (AIME 2025), while Mistral Medium 3.5 is better at 1 benchmark (SWE-Bench Verified). Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Choose MAI-Thinking-1 if…

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

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 3 shared benchmarks
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

MAI-Thinking-1 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (AIME 2025), while Mistral Medium 3.5 is better at 1 benchmark (SWE-Bench Verified).

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Fri Jul 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

872.0B diff

MAI-Thinking-1 has 872.0B more parameters than Mistral Medium 3.5, making it 681.3% larger.

Microsoft
MAI-Thinking-1
1.0Tparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5
128.0Bparameters
1000.0B
MAI-Thinking-1
128.0B
Mistral Medium 3.5

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Mistral Medium 3.5 specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Mistral Medium 3.5 specifies output context (256,000 tokens).

Microsoft
MAI-Thinking-1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
Fri Jul 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Mistral Medium 3.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas MAI-Thinking-1 does not.

Mistral Medium 3.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

MAI-Thinking-1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Medium 3.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

MAI-Thinking-1 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Medium 3.5 uses Modified MIT License.

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

MAI-Thinking-1

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Medium 3.5

Modified MIT License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

MAI-Thinking-1 was released on 2026-06-02, while Mistral Medium 3.5 was released on 2026-04-29.

MAI-Thinking-1 is 1 month newer than Mistral Medium 3.5.

MAI-Thinking-1

Jun 2, 2026

1 months ago

1mo newer
Mistral Medium 3.5

Apr 29, 2026

2 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Microsoft
Higher AIME 2025 score (97.0% vs 86.3%)
Mistral AI
Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Has open weights
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (77.6% vs 73.5%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against MAI-Thinking-1 and Mistral Medium 3.5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

MAI-Thinking-1
✓ Preferred
Mistral Medium 3.5
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Microsoft
MAI-Thinking-1
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5

FAQ

Common questions about MAI-Thinking-1 vs Mistral Medium 3.5.

Which is better, MAI-Thinking-1 or Mistral Medium 3.5?

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks. MAI-Thinking-1 is made by Microsoft and Mistral Medium 3.5 is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does MAI-Thinking-1 compare to Mistral Medium 3.5 in benchmarks?

MAI-Thinking-1 scores LongFact: 98.0%, AIME 2025: 97.0%, AIME 2026: 94.5%, GraphWalks: 90.0%, AIR-Bench: 88.0%. Mistral Medium 3.5 scores COLLIE: 95.8%, Tau3 Telecom: 91.4%, AIME 2025: 86.3%, SWE-Bench Verified: 77.6%, Tau3 Retail: 76.1%.

What are the context window sizes for MAI-Thinking-1 and Mistral Medium 3.5?

MAI-Thinking-1 supports an unknown number of tokens and Mistral Medium 3.5 supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between MAI-Thinking-1 and Mistral Medium 3.5?

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

Who makes MAI-Thinking-1 and Mistral Medium 3.5?

MAI-Thinking-1 is developed by Microsoft and Mistral Medium 3.5 is developed by Mistral AI.

Related comparisons