Comparison · prices as of 2026-07-04 · re-verified 2026-08-18
Grok 4 vs Mistral Medium 3.5
On price alone, Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral) runs about 50% cheaper than Grok 4 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 | Grok 4 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input / MTok | $3 | $1.50 |
| Output / MTok | $15 | $7.50 |
| Context window | 256K | 128K |
| Max output | 64K | 32K |
| Class | frontier | 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 | Grok 4 | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light — chatbot 0.5K in / 0.2K out · 200 req/day | $27.00 | $13.50 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Typical — assistant 2K in / 0.5K out · 1K req/day | $405 | $203 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
| Heavy — RAG / agent 8K in / 2K out · 5K req/day | $8,100 | $4,050 | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
Which should you pick?
- Cheapest overall: Mistral Medium 3.5 — about 50% less per month on a typical assistant workload.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is cheaper on both input and output, so it stays cheaper whether your workload is prompt-heavy or generation-heavy.
- Largest context window: Grok 4 at 256K tokens vs 128K — the one to pick if you feed in whole documents or codebases.
- Different classes: Grok 4 is a frontier model, Mistral Medium 3.5 is a workhorse model — expect Grok 4 to be stronger on hard reasoning and Mistral Medium 3.5 to be faster and cheaper to run.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok 4 or Mistral Medium 3.5 cheaper?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is cheaper — roughly 50% less per month on a typical assistant workload (2K input + 500 output tokens, 1,000 requests/day).
What do Grok 4 and Mistral Medium 3.5 cost per million tokens?
Grok 4 is $3 per million input tokens and $15 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, Grok 4 or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Grok 4 does, at 256K tokens versus 128K for Mistral Medium 3.5.
When should I choose Grok 4 over Mistral Medium 3.5?
Choose Grok 4 when you need the extra capability of its frontier class; drop to Mistral Medium 3.5 when speed and cost matter more than peak quality.
Related comparisons
Sources: xAI pricing · Mistral pricing. Run your own numbers in the cost calculator.