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o4-mini vs Mistral Medium 3.5

Detailed pricing comparison and cost analysis.

Updated September 2026

Cost Simulator

o4-mini Cost
$1.98
Mistral Medium 3.5 Cost
$3.00
o4-mini is 34% cheaper
Featureo4-miniMistral Medium 3.5
ProviderOpenAIMistral
Input Price (1M)$1.10$1.50
Output Price (1M)$4.40$7.50
Context Window200,000262,000

Verdict

o4-mini costs $1.10 per 1M input tokens and $4.40 per 1M output tokens. Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 per 1M input tokens and $7.50 per 1M output tokens. o4-mini is 27% cheaper on input tokens than Mistral Medium 3.5. For output tokens, o4-mini is the more affordable option at $4.40/1M vs $7.50.

On context window, Mistral Medium 3.5 supports 262,000 tokens — meaning it can fit more conversation history, documents, or code in a single request. This matters for RAG pipelines, long document analysis, and agentic workflows where context builds up over many turns.

When to choose o4-mini

  • ✓ You need the lowest input token cost ($ 1.10/1M)
  • ✓ Your workload is output-heavy — o4-mini generates text cheaper
  • ✓ You are already integrated with OpenAI

When to choose Mistral Medium 3.5

  • ✓ You need a larger context window (262,000 tokens)
  • ✓ You are already integrated with Mistral

Use the calculator above to simulate your specific workload and find the exact break-even point. For most applications, the cheapest model is the one that minimises your total monthly bill given your input-to-output token ratio.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is o4-mini cheaper than Mistral Medium 3.5?

o4-mini is cheaper on input tokens at $1.10/1M vs $1.50/1M for Mistral Medium 3.5 — a 27% saving.

What is the context window of o4-mini vs Mistral Medium 3.5?

o4-mini has a 200,000-token context window. Mistral Medium 3.5 has a 262,000-token context window. Mistral Medium 3.5 supports the larger context, suitable for longer documents and agentic workflows.

Which model is better: o4-mini or Mistral Medium 3.5?

The best choice depends on your use case. For cost efficiency on input tokens, o4-mini is the cheaper option. For maximum context length, Mistral Medium 3.5 supports 262,000 tokens. Use the comparison table above to find the right fit for your workload.