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Model comparison

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Mistral Medium 3.5

DeepSeek against Mistral, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Mistral

Mistral Medium 3.5

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationDeepSeek V4 ProMistral Medium 3.5
ProviderDeepSeekMistral
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1M262K
Max output384KNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $1.32$1.50
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $3.96$7.50
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters1.6T total / 49B active (MoE)128B dense
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestexttext, image
LicenseMITModified MIT
API model iddeepseek-v4-promistral-medium-3-5
ReleasedApril 24, 2026April 28, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [max] (2026-09-26)36Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified14.2
SWE-bench Verified (2026-04-24)80.6Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond (2026-04-24)90.1Not verifiedUnverified
Humanity's Last Exam (2026-04-24)48.2Not verifiedUnverified
MMLU-Pro (2026-04-24)87.5Not verifiedUnverified

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check measuredAt.

  • 2026-04-24
    DeepSeek V4 Pro HF model card (vendor, Think Max, exact match)

    Real GitHub issue resolution: does the model's patch pass the hidden tests.

    Comparable with caveatPost-audit vendor claims and pre-audit scores sit on different task trust levels; scaffolding (agent harness, compute budget) also dominates results. Never aggregate across scaffolds.

Pricing tiers

DeepSeek V4 Pro: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Cache hit $0.044 peak / $0.022 off-peak. Peak hours are weekdays 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC. Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE.

Mistral Medium 3.5: Mistral first-party API $1.50/$7.50 per MTok; Mistral advertises up to 90% off cached input (exact cached rate not verified). Open weights under a Modified MIT licence. 128B dense.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Pro

DeepSeek V4 Pro is DeepSeek's large open-weight (MIT) MoE with a 1M-token context — DeepSeek says the cheaper V4.1-Flash now beats it.

Best for

  • Cost-sensitive hosted agents
  • Open-weight deployments
  • High-volume coding

Watch out

On 2026-09-10 DeepSeek said it is phasing out V4-Pro (it later reversed the 2026-09-14 re-route and still serves it); plan new work on V4.1-Flash. Self-hosting needs datacentre VRAM.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Mistral Medium 3.5

Mistral Medium 3.5 is the model Mistral calls its new flagship — a 128B dense open-weight model with a 256K context, powering its Vibe remote agents.

Best for

  • EU-hosted frontier work
  • Open-weight self-hosting
  • Mistral Vibe agents

Watch out

Far behind US and Chinese frontier models on the Artificial Analysis index; max output is not published. Check the Modified MIT terms before redistribution.

When the cheaper one wins

DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper on output at $3.96 per million tokens against $7.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — about 1.9×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, reasoning levels.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? DeepSeek V4 Pro · Mistral Medium 3.5

Common questions

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Mistral Medium 3.5

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is DeepSeek V4 Pro or Mistral Medium 3.5 cheaper for input?
DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper at $1.32 per million input tokens, against $1.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — roughly 1.1× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V4 Pro has tiered pricing: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Cache hit $0.044 peak / $0.022 off-peak. Peak hours are weekdays 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC. Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. Mistral Medium 3.5 has tiered pricing: Mistral first-party API $1.50/$7.50 per MTok; Mistral advertises up to 90% off cached input (exact cached rate not verified). Open weights under a Modified MIT licence. 128B dense.
Is DeepSeek V4 Pro or Mistral Medium 3.5 cheaper for output?
DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper at $3.96 per million output tokens, against $7.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — roughly 1.9× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V4 Pro has tiered pricing: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Cache hit $0.044 peak / $0.022 off-peak. Peak hours are weekdays 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC. Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. Mistral Medium 3.5 has tiered pricing: Mistral first-party API $1.50/$7.50 per MTok; Mistral advertises up to 90% off cached input (exact cached rate not verified). Open weights under a Modified MIT licence. 128B dense.
Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Mistral Medium 3.5?
DeepSeek V4 Pro accepts 1M tokens against 262K for Mistral Medium 3.5. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use DeepSeek V4 Pro or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. DeepSeek V4 Pro suits cost-sensitive hosted agents; Mistral Medium 3.5 suits eu-hosted frontier work.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $1.32 per 1M tokens versus $1.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — a 1.1x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: DeepSeek V4 Pro takes 1M against 262K for Mistral Medium 3.5 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
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