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Model comparison

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Muse Spark 1.2

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

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

Mistral

Mistral Medium 3.5

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Meta

Muse Spark 1.2

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationMistral Medium 3.5Muse Spark 1.2
ProviderMistralMeta
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window262KWinner: 1.05M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$1.50Winner: $1.25
Output / 1M tokens$7.50Winner: $4.25
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters128B denseMeta frontier model
Reasoning levelsNot verifiedUnverifiedminimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video, audio, pdf
LicenseModified MITNot disclosedUnverified
API model idmistral-medium-3-5muse-spark-1.2
ReleasedApril 28, 2026August 5, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)14.2Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified39.6

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.

Pricing tiers

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.

Muse Spark 1.2: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.

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.

FrontierRecord checked September 26, 2026

Muse Spark 1.2

Muse Spark 1.2 is Meta's closed frontier model until the 1.3 refresh (2026-09-02) — still served and ranked in the LMArena text top 10 as of mid-2026.

Best for

  • Frontier reasoning
  • Meta ecosystem
  • Agentic work

Watch out

Closed-weights (unlike Llama 4); Meta's post-Llama-4 frontier branding.

When the cheaper one wins

Muse Spark 1.2 is cheaper on output at $4.25 per million tokens against $7.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — about 1.8×. 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? Mistral Medium 3.5 · Muse Spark 1.2

Common questions

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Muse Spark 1.2

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

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 or Muse Spark 1.2 cheaper for input?
Muse Spark 1.2 is cheaper at $1.25 per million input tokens, against $1.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — roughly 1.2× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; 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. Muse Spark 1.2 has tiered pricing: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.
Is Mistral Medium 3.5 or Muse Spark 1.2 cheaper for output?
Muse Spark 1.2 is cheaper at $4.25 per million output tokens, against $7.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — roughly 1.8× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; 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. Muse Spark 1.2 has tiered pricing: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.
Which has the larger context window, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Muse Spark 1.2 accepts 1.05M tokens against 262K for Mistral Medium 3.5. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use Mistral Medium 3.5 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Mistral Medium 3.5 suits eu-hosted frontier work; Muse Spark 1.2 suits frontier reasoning.
Can I self-host Mistral Medium 3.5 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Mistral Medium 3.5 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Muse Spark 1.2 is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

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

  • Input price: Muse Spark 1.2 costs $1.25 per 1M tokens versus $1.50 for Mistral Medium 3.5 — a 1.2x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Muse Spark 1.2 takes 1.05M against 262K for Mistral Medium 3.5 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Muse Spark 1.2 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 39.6 to 14.2 (measured 2026-09-26).
  • Deployment: Mistral Medium 3.5 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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