AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

SASakana Namazu Paid vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) Open

Sakana Namazu 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.

SASakana NamazuPaidSakana AI
$0.95 /M input
$4 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window262K 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 Sakana Namazu if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Sakana Namazu vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) specs

SpecSakana NamazuMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)Winner
MakerSakana AIMistral AI
TypeProprietaryOpen-weightMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Context window262K tokens262K tokens= Tie
Input price$0.95/M$0.75/M · free self-hostMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Output price$4/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

SAChoose Sakana Namazu if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • 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

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

Benchmarks: Sakana Namazu vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)

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

Sakana Namazu
Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Intelligence index
14.9
Coding index
46.9
GPQA
74.8%
Humanity's Last Exam
13.8%
Long Context Reasoning
69.3%
SciCode
40.2%
IFBench
68.8%
τ²-Bench
94.2%
τ-Bench Banking
15.1%
Terminal-Bench
50.6%
Terminal-Bench Hard
33.3%
Speed
142.2 tok/s
Latency
0.74s
Intelligence per $
5

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Sakana Namazu and Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) score

🏆 Best value & openness: Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) (4.6 vs 3.1 / 5)
CriterionSakana NamazuMistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
Cost-efficiency4.04.0
Context window4.04.0
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

Sakana Namazu Paid

Sakana AI · Proprietary

Sakana Namazu is a Japanese-specialized reasoning model from Sakana AI, based on Kimi K2.6 with additional training for Japanese language and business contexts. It is suited for Japanese instruction following,...

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
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 Sakana Namazu?

Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Sakana Namazu 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. Sakana Namazu is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

Sakana Namazu 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 Sakana Namazu if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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