Model Comparison

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Grok 4.5Which is better in 2026?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.5 cost the same.

Verdict: Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Grok 4.5 — which is better?

Mistral Medium 3.5 (by Mistral AI) and Grok 4.5 (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 4.5 is better at 2 benchmarks (GDPval-AA, Tau3 Banking). Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Grok 4.5 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 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 4.5 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Mistral Medium 3.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Grok 4.5 is better at 2 benchmarks (GDPval-AA, Tau3 Banking).

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Jul 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

For input processing, Mistral Medium 3.5 ($1.50/1M tokens) is 1.3x cheaper than Grok 4.5 ($2.00/1M tokens).

For output processing, Mistral Medium 3.5 ($7.50/1M tokens) is 1.3x more expensive than Grok 4.5 ($6.00/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.5 cost the same.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Jul 17 2026 • llm-stats.com
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5
Input tokens$1.50
Output tokens$7.50
Best providerMistral
xAI
Grok 4.5
Input tokens$2.00
Output tokens$6.00
Best providerxAI
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Grok 4.5 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Medium 3.5's 256,000 tokens. Only Mistral Medium 3.5 specifies output context (256,000 tokens).

Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
xAI
Grok 4.5
Input500,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Fri Jul 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.5 support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Mistral Medium 3.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Grok 4.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mistral Medium 3.5 is licensed under Modified MIT License, while Grok 4.5 uses a proprietary license.

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

Mistral Medium 3.5

Modified MIT License

Open weights

Grok 4.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mistral Medium 3.5 was released on 2026-04-29, while Grok 4.5 was released on 2026-07-08.

Grok 4.5 is 2 months newer than Mistral Medium 3.5.

Mistral Medium 3.5

Apr 29, 2026

2 months ago

Grok 4.5

Jul 8, 2026

1 weeks ago

2mo newer

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

Provider Availability

Mistral Medium 3.5 is available from Mistral AI. Grok 4.5 is available from xAI.

Mistral Medium 3.5

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $1.50/1MOutput Price:Output: $7.50/1M

Grok 4.5

xai logo
xAI
Input Price:Input: $2.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $6.00/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Mistral AI
Less expensive input tokens
Has open weights
xAI
Larger context window (500,000 tokens)
Less expensive output tokens
Higher GDPval-AA score (51.4% vs 30.9%)
Higher Tau3 Banking score (33.0% vs 13.4%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mistral Medium 3.5
✓ Preferred
Grok 4.5
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5
xAI
Grok 4.5

FAQ

Common questions about Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Grok 4.5.

Which is better, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Grok 4.5?

Grok 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Mistral Medium 3.5 is made by Mistral AI and Grok 4.5 is made by xAI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Mistral Medium 3.5 compare to Grok 4.5 in benchmarks?

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%. Grok 4.5 scores GPQA: 93.0%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 83.3%, Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index v1.1: 76.0%, SWE-Bench Pro: 64.7%, AA-Omniscience Index: 63.0%.

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 cheaper than Grok 4.5?

Mistral Medium 3.5 is 1.3x cheaper for input tokens. Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50/M input and $7.50/M output via mistral. Grok 4.5 costs $2.00/M input and $6.00/M output via xai.

What are the context window sizes for Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.5?

Mistral Medium 3.5 supports 256K tokens and Grok 4.5 supports 500K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.5?

Key differences include context window (256K vs 500K), input pricing ($1.50 vs $2.00/M), licensing (Modified MIT License vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mistral Medium 3.5 and Grok 4.5?

Mistral Medium 3.5 is developed by Mistral AI and Grok 4.5 is developed by xAI.

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