Model Comparison
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs GLM-5.1Which is better in 2026?
GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. GLM-5.1 is 1.4x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Mistral Medium 3.5 vs GLM-5.1 — which is better?
Mistral Medium 3.5 (by Mistral AI) and GLM-5.1 (by Zhipu 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.
Mistral Medium 3.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while GLM-5.1 is better at 3 benchmarks (BrowseComp, Finance Agent v2, GDPval-AA). GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, GLM-5.1 is roughly 1.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mistral Medium 3.5 also accepts a larger context window (256,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2026
Choose GLM-5.1 if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
- cost matters — it's about 1.4x cheaper per token
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral Medium 3.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while GLM-5.1 is better at 3 benchmarks (BrowseComp, Finance Agent v2, GDPval-AA).
GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Medium 3.5 ($1.50/1M tokens) is 1.1x more expensive than GLM-5.1 ($1.40/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Medium 3.5 ($7.50/1M tokens) is 1.7x more expensive than GLM-5.1 ($4.40/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Medium 3.5 is more expensive than GLM-5.1.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
GLM-5.1 has 626.0B more parameters than Mistral Medium 3.5, making it 489.1% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to GLM-5.1's 200,000 tokens. Mistral Medium 3.5 can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while GLM-5.1 is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Mistral Medium 3.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas GLM-5.1 does not.
Mistral Medium 3.5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mistral Medium 3.5
GLM-5.1
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Medium 3.5 is licensed under Modified MIT License, while GLM-5.1 uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Modified MIT License
Open weights
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Medium 3.5 was released on 2026-04-29, while GLM-5.1 was released on 2026-04-07.
Mistral Medium 3.5 is 1 month newer than GLM-5.1.
Apr 29, 2026
2 months ago
3w newerApr 7, 2026
3 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Mistral Medium 3.5 is available from Mistral AI. GLM-5.1 is available from FriendliAI, ZAI.
Mistral Medium 3.5
GLM-5.1
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Mistral Medium 3.5
View detailsMistral AI
GLM-5.1
View detailsZhipu AI
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Medium 3.5 and GLM-5.1 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Medium 3.5 vs GLM-5.1.