AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

GLM 5.3 Open vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) Paid

GLM 5.3 vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) — full profile ›

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

GLM 5.3OpenZ.AI

$1.4 /M input
$4.4 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host

TypeOpen-weight

Context window1.3M tokens

MultimodalNo

Self-hostYes

Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)PaidMistral AI

$0.2 /M input
$1 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)

TypeProprietary

Context window131K tokens

MultimodalYes

Self-hostNo

Choose GLM 5.3 if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

GLM 5.3 vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) specs

Spec	GLM 5.3	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)	Winner
Maker	Z.AI	Mistral AI	–
Type	Open-weight	Proprietary	GLM 5.3
Context window	1.3M tokens	131K tokens	GLM 5.3
Input price	$1.4/M · free self-host	$0.2/M	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Output price	$4.4/M · free self-host	$1/M	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Vision / multimodal	No	Yes	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Tool / function calling	Yes	Yes	= Tie
Self-hostable	Yes	No (API only)	GLM 5.3
License	MIT	Proprietary	GLM 5.3

Price gap & when to choose each

4.4×cheaper per output token

Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) is ~4.4× cheaper than GLM 5.3 on output tokens ($1 vs $4.4 per M tokens).

Choose GLM 5.3 if…

You want to self-host or run on your cloud
You need the longer 1.3M context window
You prioritize data privacy & control
You are building open or reproducible AI

Choose Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) if…

You want frontier performance through a managed API
You want the lower output price
You value reliability & ecosystem
You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

Capability	GLM 5.3	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Open weights (downloadable)	✓	✗
Self-hostable	✓	✗
Runs fully offline	✓	✗
Vision / multimodal	✗	✓
Tool / function calling	✓	✓
1M+ context window	✓	✗

Benchmarks: GLM 5.3 vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

GLM 5.3

Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)

Intelligence index

44.9

9.9

Coding index

74.8

20.5

GPQA

91.7%

58.8%

Humanity's Last Exam

42.3%

4.7%

Long Context Reasoning

79.7%

–

SciCode

59%

32.4%

τ-Bench Banking

50.3%

8.2%

Terminal-Bench

83.9%

13.9%

Math index

–

38.3

MMLU-Pro

–

68.3%

LiveCodeBench

–

40.6%

AIME 2025

–

38.3%

IFBench

–

39.8%

τ²-Bench

–

40.6%

Terminal-Bench Hard

–

10.6%

Speed

54.8 tok/s

0 tok/s

Latency

3.57s

Intelligence per $

20.9

12.4

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How GLM 5.3 and Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) score

🏆 Best value & openness: GLM 5.3 (4.5 vs 3.1 / 5)

Criterion	GLM 5.3	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Cost-efficiency	4.0	4.5
Context window	5.0	3.5
Openness	5.0	1.5
Self-hosting	5.0	1.0
Multimodality	3.5	5.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

GLM 5.3 Open

Z.AI · Open-weight

GLM-5.3 is a large-scale reasoning model from Z.ai, built for complex software engineering and long-horizon agent tasks. It supports text input and output with a 1M-token context window, and improves...

Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) Paid

Mistral AI · Proprietary

Mistral Medium 3.1 is an updated version of Mistral Medium 3, which is a high-performance enterprise-grade language model designed to deliver frontier-level capabilities at significantly reduced operational cost. It balances...

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked

GLM 5.3 (batch)GLM 5.3 FlashGLM 5.3 Flash (batch)GLM 5.2 (batch)GLM 5.2GLM 5GLM 5 TurboGLM 5.1GLM 5V TurboGLM 4.7GLM 4.6GLM 4.7 FlashGLM 4.5GLM 4.5 AirGLM 4.6VGLM 4.5V

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM 5.3 as good as Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)?

GLM 5.3 is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run GLM 5.3 locally?

Yes. GLM 5.3 has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

GLM 5.3 vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose GLM 5.3 if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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