Comparison · prices as of 2026-07-04 · re-verified 2026-08-18
Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Mistral Medium 3.5
On price alone, Claude Haiku 4.5 (Anthropic) runs about 33% cheaper than Mistral Medium 3.5 for a typical chat workload (2K input + 500 output tokens, 1,000 requests/day). Whether that's the right trade depends on the capability gap — the breakdown below shows where each one wins.
Price per million tokens
| Spec | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input / MTok | $1 | $1.50 |
| Output / MTok | $5 | $7.50 |
| Context window | 200K | 128K |
| Max output | 64K | 32K |
| Class | fast / lightweight | workhorse |
Estimated monthly cost by workload
Same models, three realistic usage levels. The gap between them scales with volume, so the right pick can change as you grow.
| Workload | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light — chatbot 0.5K in / 0.2K out · 200 req/day | $9.00 | $13.50 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| Typical — assistant 2K in / 0.5K out · 1K req/day | $135 | $203 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
| Heavy — RAG / agent 8K in / 2K out · 5K req/day | $2,700 | $4,050 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
Which should you pick?
- Cheapest overall: Claude Haiku 4.5 — about 33% less per month on a typical assistant workload.
- Claude Haiku 4.5 is cheaper on both input and output, so it stays cheaper whether your workload is prompt-heavy or generation-heavy.
- Largest context window: Claude Haiku 4.5 at 200K tokens vs 128K — the one to pick if you feed in whole documents or codebases.
- Different classes: Claude Haiku 4.5 is a fast / lightweight model, Mistral Medium 3.5 is a workhorse model — expect Mistral Medium 3.5 to be stronger on hard reasoning and Claude Haiku 4.5 to be faster and cheaper to run.
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Haiku 4.5 or Mistral Medium 3.5 cheaper?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is cheaper — roughly 33% less per month on a typical assistant workload (2K input + 500 output tokens, 1,000 requests/day).
What do Claude Haiku 4.5 and Mistral Medium 3.5 cost per million tokens?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is $1 per million input tokens and $5 per million output. Mistral Medium 3.5 is $1.50 input and $7.50 output. Prices are first-party API list rates as of 2026-07-04.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Claude Haiku 4.5 does, at 200K tokens versus 128K for Mistral Medium 3.5.
When should I choose Mistral Medium 3.5 over Claude Haiku 4.5?
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 when you need the extra capability of its workhorse class; drop to Claude Haiku 4.5 when speed and cost matter more than peak quality.
Related comparisons
Sources: Anthropic pricing · Mistral pricing. Run your own numbers in the cost calculator.