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.
GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) — full profile ›
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
| Spec | GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) | Winner |
| Maker | OpenAI | Mistral AI | – |
| Type | Proprietary | Open-weight | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) |
| Context window | 1.1M tokens | 262K tokens | GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) |
| Input price | $1/M | $0.75/M · free self-host | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) |
| Output price | $5/M | $3.75/M · free self-host | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) |
| Vision / multimodal | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Tool / function calling | Yes | Yes | = Tie |
| Self-hostable | No (API only) | Yes | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0 | Mistral 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
| Capability | GPT-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
Humanity's Last Exam
49.5%
13.8%
Long Context Reasoning
84%
69.3%
τ-Bench Banking
44.3%
15.1%
Terminal-Bench Hard
65.9%
33.3%
Speed
68.7 tok/s
142.2 tok/s
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)
| Criterion | GPT-5.6 Sol (batch) | Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) |
| Cost-efficiency | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Context window | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Openness | 1.5 | 5.0 |
| Self-hosting | 1.0 | 5.0 |
| Multimodality | 5.0 | 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
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 trackedGPT-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 trackedMistral 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.