AI Models · Open-Source vs Open-Source

MiniMax M3.1 Flash Open vs Mistral Medium 3.5 Open

MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Mistral Medium 3.5 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

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

MiniMax M3.1 FlashOpenMiniMax
$0.15 /M input
$0.6 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window1M tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostYes
Mistral Medium 3.5OpenMistral AI
$1.5 /M input
$7.5 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window262K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostYes
Choose MiniMax M3.1 Flash for the lower output price ($0.6/M vs $7.5/M). It also gives you the larger 1M context window.

MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Mistral Medium 3.5 specs

SpecMiniMax M3.1 FlashMistral Medium 3.5Winner
MakerMiniMaxMistral AI–
TypeOpen-weightOpen-weight–
Context window1M tokens262K tokensMiniMax M3.1 Flash
Input price$0.15/M · free self-host$1.5/M · free self-hostMiniMax M3.1 Flash
Output price$0.6/M · free self-host$7.5/M · free self-hostMiniMax M3.1 Flash
Vision / multimodalYesYes= Tie
Tool / function callingYesYes= Tie
Self-hostableYesYes= Tie
LicenseMITApache 2.0–

Price gap & when to choose each

13×cheaper per output token

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is ~13× cheaper than Mistral Medium 3.5 on output tokens ($0.6 vs $7.5 per M tokens).

Choose MiniMax M3.1 Flash if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You need the longer 1M context window
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You want the lowest operating costs
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You are building open or reproducible AI

Feature comparison

CapabilityMiniMax M3.1 FlashMistral Medium 3.5
Open weights (downloadable)✓✓
Self-hostable✓✓
Runs fully offline✓✓
Vision / multimodal✓✓
Tool / function calling✓✓
1M+ context window✓✗

Benchmarks: MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Mistral Medium 3.5

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

MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Mistral Medium 3.5
Intelligence index
28.9
–
Humanity's Last Exam
48%
13.8%
Long Context Reasoning
79.7%
69.3%
SciCode
53.4%
40.2%
Coding index
–
46.9
GPQA
–
74.8%
IFBench
–
68.8%
τ²-Bench
–
94.2%
τ-Bench Banking
–
15.1%
Terminal-Bench
–
50.6%
Terminal-Bench Hard
–
33.3%
Speed
103.1 tok/s
165.5 tok/s
Latency
0.88s
0.84s
Intelligence per $
110.3
–

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How MiniMax M3.1 Flash and Mistral Medium 3.5 score

🏆 Best value & openness: MiniMax M3.1 Flash (5.0 vs 4.6 / 5)
CriterionMiniMax M3.1 FlashMistral Medium 3.5
Cost-efficiency5.04.0
Context window5.04.0
Openness5.05.0
Self-hosting5.05.0
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

MiniMax M3.1 Flash Open

MiniMax · Open-weight

MiniMax-M3.1-Flash is a multimodal model from MiniMax. Compared with M3, it delivers significant improvements across multiple benchmarks, particularly in complex agentic tasks, coding, and cybersecurity. It is built for complex,...

Mistral Medium 3.5 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
MiniMax M3MiniMax M1MiniMax M2.7MiniMax M2.5MiniMax M2-herMiniMax M2.1MiniMax-01MiniMax M2
Other variants tracked
Mistral Large 4Mistral LargeMistral Large 2407Mixtral 8x22B InstructMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)Mistral Medium 3.1Devstral 2 2512Mistral Medium 3Mistral Large 3 2512UncensoredCodestral 2508Mistral Small 4SabaMistral Small 3.1 24BVoxtral Small 24B 2507Mistral Small 3.2 24BMinistral 3 14B 2512Ministral 3 8B 2512Ministral 3 3B 2512Mistral Small 3Mistral Nemo

Frequently asked questions

MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Mistral Medium 3.5 — which is cheaper?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is cheaper on output ($0.6/M vs $7.5/M).

Which has the larger context window?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash offers the larger context window (1M tokens).

MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Mistral Medium 3.5 — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose MiniMax M3.1 Flash for the lower output price ($0.6/M vs $7.5/M). It also gives you the larger 1M context window.

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