Undominated.ai

Cheaper alternatives to Mistral Medium 3.5

Mistral LMArena 1420.9 $3.00/M on a balanced workload prices as of 2026-08-28

3 models are both better and cheaper, giving up nothing.

Of the 133 models carrying both an independent score and a published price at the same delivery mode, 41 score at least as high as Mistral Medium 3.5 and cost no more under at least one workload. 3 match or beat it on every capability we hold — context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and extended reasoning. 38 do not, and every row names what it drops.

Dominance is not a property of a model. It is a property of a model, a capability lens and a workload, and all three are named on every row. Scores are LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset; prices are blended per million tokens. A higher score is not a drop-in replacement.

This page is built from that comparison and nothing else. When no model is both better and cheaper than Mistral Medium 3.5, it is not generated.

Where it holds

WorkloadMistral Medium 3.5 $/MBetter and cheaperWith a trade
Balanced$3.00333
Summarise$1.80336
Chat$3.90333
Code gen$5.10333
Agentic$2.40338

Workload mixes are defined on the methodology page. Cached input is priced at the cached rate, and reasoning tokens at the worse of the reasoning and output rates.

What you would be replacing

Intelligence1420.9
Context window262K
Max output210K
Input modestext, image, file
Tool useyes
Extended reasoningyes

A replacement has to clear every line above, not just the score. Full record for Mistral Medium 3.5.

Better and cheaper, nothing given up 3

Each of these matches or beats Mistral Medium 3.5 on context, maximum output, input modes, tool use and reasoning, scores at least as high, and costs no more.

#ModelIntelligence$/MHolds under
1Muse Spark 1.1 Meta1478.3 +57.4$2.00
  • Balanced −33%
  • Summarise −40%
  • Chat −46%
  • Code gen −42%
  • Agentic −56%
2Grok 4.5 xAI1452.3 +31.4$3.00
  • Balanced same price
  • Summarise −5%
  • Chat −21%
  • Code gen −16%
  • Agentic −34%
3Grok 4.6 xAI1443.7 +22.8$3.00
  • Balanced same price
  • Summarise −2%
  • Chat −19%
  • Code gen −16%
  • Agentic −29%

Cheaper and higher-scoring, but you give something up 38

These score at least as high and cost no more on the two plotted axes, and lose something that is not on them. Read the last column before switching.

ModelIntelligence$/MHolds underWhat you give up
Gemini 3.7 Flash Google1490.2 +69.3$0.750
  • Balanced −75%
  • Summarise −80%
  • Chat −78%
  • Code gen −76%
  • Agentic −83%
  • 210K → 66K max output
Qwen3.8 Max Qwen1481.9 +61$3.00
  • Balanced same price
  • Summarise −5%
  • Chat −21%
  • Code gen −16%
  • Agentic −35%
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no file input
Gemini 3.6 Flash Google1476.5 +55.6$1.50
  • Balanced −50%
  • Summarise −61%
  • Chat −55%
  • Code gen −51%
  • Agentic −67%
  • 210K → 66K max output
GLM 5.3 Z.ai1476.9 +56$2.15
  • Balanced −28%
  • Summarise −32%
  • Chat −42%
  • Code gen −39%
  • Agentic −51%
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no image, file input
MiMo-V2.5-Pro Xiaomi1465 +44.1$0.544
  • Balanced −82%
  • Summarise −81%
  • Chat −88%
  • Code gen −87%
  • Agentic −90%
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no image, file input
GLM 5.2 Z.ai1465.4 +44.5$1.83
  • Balanced −39%
  • Summarise −42%
  • Chat −51%
  • Code gen −48%
  • Agentic −59%
  • no image, file input
GLM 5.1 Z.ai1464.1 +43.2$1.94
  • Balanced −36%
  • Summarise −39%
  • Chat −48%
  • Code gen −45%
  • Agentic −56%
  • 262K → 205K context
  • 210K → 182K max output
  • no image, file input
Qwen3.7 Plus Qwen1456.2 +35.3$0.560
  • Balanced −81%
  • Summarise −84%
  • Chat −84%
  • Code gen −83%
  • Agentic −87%
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no file input
Kimi K2.6 Moonshot AI1455 +34.1$1.71
  • Balanced −43%
  • Summarise −51%
  • Chat −50%
  • Code gen −47%
  • Agentic −61%
  • no file input
Kimi K2.5 Moonshot AI1445.2 +24.3$0.900
  • Balanced −70%
  • Summarise −76%
  • Chat −73%
  • Code gen −71%
  • Agentic −79%
  • no file input
GLM 5 Z.ai1445.2 +24.3$0.930
  • Balanced −69%
  • Summarise −71%
  • Chat −75%
  • Code gen −73%
  • Agentic −79%
  • 262K → 205K context
  • 210K → 128K max output
  • no image, file input
Gemma 4 31B Google1441.7 +20.8$0.152
  • Balanced −95%
  • Summarise −95%
  • Chat −95%
  • Code gen −95%
  • Agentic −96%
  • 210K → 16K max output
  • no file input
Hy3 Tencent1441.2 +20.3$0.144
  • Balanced −95%
  • Summarise −96%
  • Chat −96%
  • Code gen −96%
  • Agentic −97%
  • 210K → 128K max output
  • no image, file input
Qwen3.6 Max Preview Qwen1446.3 +25.4$2.31
  • Balanced −23%
  • Summarise −29%
  • Chat −21%
  • Code gen −19%
  • Agentic −25%
  • 210K → 66K max output
  • no image, file input
Qwen3.8 27B Qwen1440.8 +19.9$0.956
  • Balanced −68%
  • Summarise −76%
  • Chat −70%
  • Code gen −67%
  • Agentic −77%
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no file input
GLM 4.6 Z.ai1439.8 +18.9$0.875
  • Balanced −71%
  • Summarise −74%
  • Chat −75%
  • Code gen −73%
  • Agentic −80%
  • 262K → 205K context
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no image, file input
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0423 DeepSeek1439.2 +18.3$1.09
  • Balanced −64%
  • Summarise −62%
  • Chat −75%
  • Code gen −74%
  • Agentic −78%
  • no image, file input
Qwen3.5 397B A17B Qwen1438.3 +17.4$0.877
  • Balanced −71%
  • Summarise −73%
  • Chat −70%
  • Code gen −69%
  • Agentic −72%
  • 210K → 66K max output
  • no file input
Qwen3.6 Plus Qwen1436.8 +15.9$0.731
  • Balanced −76%
  • Summarise −77%
  • Chat −75%
  • Code gen −75%
  • Agentic −76%
  • 210K → 66K max output
  • no file input
Gemma 4 26B A4B Google1434.6 +13.7$0.138
  • Balanced −95%
  • Summarise −95%
  • Chat −95%
  • Code gen −95%
  • Agentic −95%
  • 210K → 16K max output
  • no file input
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google1436.5 +15.6$0.850
  • Balanced −72%
  • Summarise −82%
  • Chat −72%
  • Code gen −69%
  • Agentic −80%
  • 210K → 66K max output
Inkling Thinking Machines1439.2 +18.3$1.73
  • Balanced −43%
  • Summarise −51%
  • Chat −50%
  • Code gen −46%
  • Agentic −61%
  • no file input
MiniMax M3 MiniMax1434.8 +13.9$0.525
  • Balanced −83%
  • Summarise −85%
  • Chat −85%
  • Code gen −84%
  • Agentic −88%
  • no file input
GLM 4.7 Z.ai1435.3 +14.4$0.738
  • Balanced −75%
  • Summarise −79%
  • Chat −78%
  • Code gen −77%
  • Agentic −83%
  • 262K → 205K context
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no image, file input
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 DeepSeek1431.6 +10.7$0.101
  • Balanced −97%
  • Summarise −96%
  • Chat −98%
  • Code gen −98%
  • Agentic −98%
  • no image, file input
GLM 5V Turbo Z.ai1436.8 +15.9$1.90
  • Balanced −37%
  • Summarise −41%
  • Chat −48%
  • Code gen −45%
  • Agentic −56%
  • 262K → 203K context
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no file input
GPT-5.6 Luna OpenAI1428.5 tie$0.450
  • Balanced −85%
  • Summarise −89%
  • Chat −86%
  • Code gen −85%
  • Agentic −90%
  • 210K → 128K max output
MiMo-V2.5 Xiaomi1427.3 tie$0.175
  • Balanced −94%
  • Summarise −94%
  • Chat −96%
  • Code gen −96%
  • Agentic −97%
  • 210K → 131K max output
  • no file input
GLM 4.5 Z.ai1429.4 tie$1.00
  • Balanced −67%
  • Summarise −70%
  • Chat −72%
  • Code gen −70%
  • Agentic −77%
  • 262K → 131K context
  • 210K → 98K max output
  • no image, file input
R1 0528 DeepSeek1427.9 tie$0.912
  • Balanced −70%
  • Summarise −70%
  • Chat −71%
  • Code gen −71%
  • Agentic −73%
  • 262K → 164K context
  • 210K → 33K max output
  • no image, file input
DeepSeek V3.2 DeepSeek1424.6 tie$0.290
  • Balanced −90%
  • Summarise −87%
  • Chat −93%
  • Code gen −94%
  • Agentic −92%
  • 262K → 164K context
  • 210K → 147K max output
  • no image, file input
DeepSeek V3.2 Exp DeepSeek1424.4 tie$0.305
  • Balanced −90%
  • Summarise −85%
  • Chat −92%
  • Code gen −93%
  • Agentic −88%
  • 262K → 164K context
  • 210K → 66K max output
  • no image, file input
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct Qwen1420.9 tie$0.632
  • Balanced −79%
  • Summarise −85%
  • Chat −78%
  • Code gen −76%
  • Agentic −83%
  • 210K → 33K max output
  • no file input
  • no extended reasoning
Gemini 3.5 Flash Google1482.6 +61.7$1.49 summarise
  • Summarise −17%
  • Agentic −24%
  • 210K → 66K max output
Gemini 2.5 Pro Google1457.3 +36.4$1.37 summarise
  • Summarise −24%
  • Agentic −21%
  • 210K → 66K max output
GPT-5.6 Sol OpenAI1454.2 +33.3$2.13 agentic
  • Agentic −11%
  • 210K → 128K max output
GPT-5.1 OpenAI1441.4 +20.5$1.37 summarise
  • Summarise −24%
  • Agentic −21%
  • 210K → 128K max output
Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic1442.3 +21.4$2.13 agentic
  • Agentic −11%
  • 210K → 128K max output

What this compares, and what it leaves out

  • Quality is LMArena Elo, used under CC BY 4.0 from the official dataset. The 95% confidence interval on a difference between two scores is about ±10.68 points, so a gap smaller than that is marked tie rather than an improvement — see significance bands.
  • 188 further models at this delivery mode carry a price but no independent score. They are absent from the comparison in both directions — unrated is not a zero, and an unmeasured model is neither an alternative nor a worse buy.
  • Retired models are never offered as an alternative, and a model only competes against its own delivery mode: batch trades latency for price, so it is not a like-for-like swap.
  • Nothing here measures latency, throughput, rate limits or how a model behaves on your prompts. Two models with the same index score are not interchangeable.
  • The models that nothing beats on both axes are on the value frontier, and every other model something cheaper beats is listed here.