Claude Opus 4.6 vs Mistral Medium 3.1
Compare Anthropic and Mistral AI AI models
Cost Comparison (1000 input + 500 output tokens, 100 requests/day)
Claude Opus 4.6
Mistral Medium 3.1
Cost Differences
Mistral Medium 3.1 costs less than Claude Opus 4.6
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Claude Opus 4.6 | Mistral Medium 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Mistral AI |
| Input Price | $5.00/1M tokens | $0.40/1M tokens |
| Output Price | $25.00/1M tokens | $2.00/1M tokens |
| Context Window | 1,000,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max Output | 128,000 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Category | flagship | balanced |
| Capabilities | textvisionreasoningcode | textcodereasoning |
| Release Date | 2/5/2026 | 8/1/2025 |
Claude Opus 4.6 vs Mistral Medium 3.1: Which Should You Choose?
Choosing between Claude Opus 4.6 and Mistral Medium 3.1 depends on your priorities: cost efficiency, context length, or raw capability. Mistral Medium 3.1 is the more affordable option at $0.40/1M input tokens — 92% cheaper than Claude Opus 4.6. Meanwhile, Claude Opus 4.6 offers a significantly larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens vs 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3.1.
These models come from different providers — Anthropic and Mistral AI — which means different API ecosystems, SDKs, rate limits, and terms of service. If you're already integrated with Anthropic, switching to Mistral AIinvolves migration effort beyond just pricing. Factor in your existing infrastructure when deciding.
These models target different tiers: Claude Opus 4.6 is a flagship model while Mistral Medium 3.1 is balanced. This means they're optimized for different workloads. Claude Opus 4.6 is built for complex tasks that require deeper reasoning, while Mistral Medium 3.1 offers better value for routine operations.
Output costs matter too. Claude Opus 4.6 charges $25.00/1M output tokens vs $2.00 for Mistral Medium 3.1. For generation-heavy workloads (content creation, code generation, summarization), output pricing often dominates your bill. Mistral Medium 3.1 has the edge here at $2.00/1M output tokens.
Multimodal capabilities: Claude Opus 4.6 supports vision (image inputs) while Mistral Medium 3.1 is text-only. If your application needs image understanding, this narrows your choice.
Best Use Cases
Choose Claude Opus 4.6 when:
- • You need a larger context window (1,000,000 tokens)
- • You need more capabilities (vision)
- • You need longer outputs (up to 128,000 tokens)
- • You're already using Anthropic's API ecosystem
Choose Mistral Medium 3.1 when:
- • Budget is a primary concern
- • You're already using Mistral AI's API ecosystem
Try Different Scenarios
Use the calculator below to see how costs change with different usage patterns
Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic)
Mistral Medium 3.1 (Mistral AI)
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