Model Comparison
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Grok 4.3Which is better in 2026?
Grok 4.3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok 4.3 is 1.9x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Grok 4.3 — which is better?
Mistral Medium 3.5 (by Mistral AI) and Grok 4.3 (by xAI) 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 Grok 4.3 is better at 2 benchmarks (Finance Agent v2, GDPval-AA). Grok 4.3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Grok 4.3 is roughly 1.9x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Grok 4.3 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Grok 4.3 if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
- cost matters — it's about 1.9x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped May 2026
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral Medium 3.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Grok 4.3 is better at 2 benchmarks (Finance Agent v2, GDPval-AA).
Grok 4.3 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 1.2x more expensive than Grok 4.3 ($1.25/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Medium 3.5 ($7.50/1M tokens) is 3.0x more expensive than Grok 4.3 ($2.50/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Medium 3.5 is more expensive than Grok 4.3.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Grok 4.3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Medium 3.5's 256,000 tokens. Only Mistral Medium 3.5 specifies output context (256,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Mistral Medium 3.5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Grok 4.3 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
Grok 4.3
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Medium 3.5 is licensed under Modified MIT License, while Grok 4.3 uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Modified MIT License
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Medium 3.5 was released on 2026-04-29, while Grok 4.3 was released on 2026-05-06.
Grok 4.3 is 0 month newer than Mistral Medium 3.5.
Apr 29, 2026
2 months ago
May 6, 2026
2 months ago
1w newerKnowledge 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. Grok 4.3 is available from xAI.
Mistral Medium 3.5
Grok 4.3
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Mistral Medium 3.5
View detailsMistral AI
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Grok 4.3.