AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) Paid vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) Open

GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (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.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

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

GPT-5.6 Sol (batch)PaidOpenAI
$1 /M input
$5 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window1.1M tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)OpenMistral AI
$0.75 /M input
$3.75 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window262K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostYes
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) 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 GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) specs

SpecGPT-5.6 Sol (batch)Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)Winner
MakerOpenAIMistral AI
TypeProprietaryOpen-weightMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Context window1.1M tokens262K tokensGPT-5.6 Sol (batch)
Input price$1/M$0.75/M · free self-hostMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Output price$5/M$3.75/M · free self-hostMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Vision / multimodalYesYes= Tie
Tool / function callingYesYes= Tie
Self-hostableNo (API only)YesMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
LicenseProprietaryApache 2.0Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)

Price gap & when to choose each

Choose GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You need the longer 1.1M context window
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You want the lowest operating costs
  • You are building open or reproducible AI

Feature comparison

CapabilityGPT-5.6 Sol (batch)Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)

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

GPT-5.6 Sol (batch)
Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Intelligence index
47.1
14.9
Coding index
77.4
46.9
GPQA
94.1%
74.8%
Humanity's Last Exam
49.5%
13.8%
Long Context Reasoning
84%
69.3%
SciCode
57.1%
40.2%
IFBench
72.7%
68.8%
τ²-Bench
85.1%
94.2%
τ-Bench Banking
44.3%
15.1%
Terminal-Bench
88%
50.6%
Terminal-Bench Hard
65.9%
33.3%
Speed
68.7 tok/s
142.2 tok/s
Latency
124.83s
0.74s
Intelligence per $
5.9
5

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) and Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) score

🏆 Best value & openness: Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) (4.6 vs 3.3 / 5)
CriterionGPT-5.6 Sol (batch)Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Cost-efficiency4.04.0
Context window5.04.0
Openness1.55.0
Self-hosting1.05.0
Multimodality5.05.0

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

GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) Paid

OpenAI · Proprietary

GPT-5.6 Sol is the flagship model in OpenAI's GPT-5.6 series. It is suited for complex reasoning, coding, and agentic workflows, and is particularly strong at command-line and multi-step coding tasks...

Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) Open

Mistral AI · Open-weight

Mistral Medium 3.5 is a dense 128B instruction-following model from Mistral AI. It supports text and image inputs with text output, and is designed for agentic workflows, coding, and complex...

Other models in these families

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

Other variants tracked
GPT-5.6 Terra (batch)GPT-5.4GPT-5.4 (batch)GPT-5.5GPT-5.5 (batch)GPT-5.6 Luna (batch)GPT-5.3-CodexGPT-5.2GPT-5.2 (batch)GPT-5.2-CodexGPT-5.1GPT-5.1 (batch)GPT-5.1-CodexGPT-5GPT-5 (batch)GPT-5.5 ProGPT-5.4 ProGPT-5.2 ProGPT-5 ProGPT-5.5 Pro (batch)GPT-5.4 Pro (batch)GPT-5.2 Pro (batch)GPT-5 Pro (batch)GPT-5.4 Image 2GPT-5.6 Terra ProGPT-5.6 Sol ProGPT-5.1-Codex-MaxGPT-5 ImageGPT-5.6 Terra Pro (batch)GPT-5.6 Sol Pro (batch)GPT-5.6 Luna ProGPT-5.6 Luna Pro (batch)
Other variants tracked
Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral Small 4Mistral Small 4 (batch)Mistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)Mistral Large 3 2512Mistral Large 3 2512 (batch)Devstral 2 2512Mistral Medium 3Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.2 24BMistral LargeMistral Large 2407Mistral Small 3SabaMinistral 3 14B 2512Mixtral 8x22B InstructMinistral 3 8B 2512Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)Ministral 3 3B 2512UncensoredCodestral 2508Codestral 2508 (batch)Voxtral Small 24B 2507Mistral Nemo

Frequently asked questions

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) as good as GPT-5.6 Sol (batch)?

Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but GPT-5.6 Sol (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 Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) locally?

Yes. Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) 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 GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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