AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Kimi K3 (batch) Open vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) Paid

Kimi K3 (batch) 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.

Kimi K3 (batch)OpenMoonshot AI

$3 /M input
$15 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host

TypeOpen-weight

Context window1M tokens

MultimodalYes

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 Kimi K3 (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 Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Kimi K3 (batch) vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) specs

Spec	Kimi K3 (batch)	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)	Winner
Maker	Moonshot AI	Mistral AI	–
Type	Open-weight	Proprietary	Kimi K3 (batch)
Context window	1M tokens	131K tokens	Kimi K3 (batch)
Input price	$3/M · free self-host	$0.2/M	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Output price	$15/M · free self-host	$1/M	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Vision / multimodal	Yes	Yes	= Tie
Tool / function calling	Yes	Yes	= Tie
Self-hostable	Yes	No (API only)	Kimi K3 (batch)
License	Modified MIT	Proprietary	Kimi K3 (batch)

Price gap & when to choose each

15×cheaper per output token

Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) is ~15× cheaper than Kimi K3 (batch) on output tokens ($1 vs $15 per M tokens).

Choose Kimi K3 (batch) if…

You want to self-host or run on your cloud
You need the longer 1M 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	Kimi K3 (batch)	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Open weights (downloadable)	✓	✗
Self-hostable	✓	✗
Runs fully offline	✓	✗
Vision / multimodal	✓	✓
Tool / function calling	✓	✓
1M+ context window	✓	✗

Benchmarks: Kimi K3 (batch) vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)

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

Kimi K3 (batch)

Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)

Intelligence index

43.8

9.9

Coding index

76.2

20.5

GPQA

93.5%

58.8%

Humanity's Last Exam

46.9%

4.7%

Long Context Reasoning

88.7%

–

SciCode

59.5%

32.4%

τ-Bench Banking

46%

8.2%

Terminal-Bench

85%

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

37.2 tok/s

0 tok/s

Latency

2.99s

Intelligence per $

7.3

12.4

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Kimi K3 (batch) and Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) score

🏆 Best value & openness: Kimi K3 (batch) (4.6 vs 3.1 / 5)

Criterion	Kimi K3 (batch)	Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)
Cost-efficiency	3.0	4.5
Context window	5.0	3.5
Openness	5.0	1.5
Self-hosting	5.0	1.0
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

Kimi K3 (batch) Open

Moonshot AI · Open-weight

Kimi K3 is a 2.8T parameter open-weight multimodal reasoning model from Moonshot AI. It is suited for complex coding, knowledge work, and long-horizon agentic workflows, and is particularly strong at...

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

Kimi K3Kimi K2.6Kimi K2.7 CodeKimi K2.5Kimi K2 ThinkingKimi K2 0905Kimi K2 0711

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimi K3 (batch) as good as Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch)?

Kimi K3 (batch) 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 Kimi K3 (batch) locally?

Yes. Kimi K3 (batch) 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.

Kimi K3 (batch) vs Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Kimi K3 (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 Mistral Medium 3.1 (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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