Mistral vs OpenAI: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Mistral and OpenAI — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
Mistral
Mistral Medium 3.5, Mistral Small 4, Voxtral TTS, Mistral OCR 4 — European sovereign AI
Mistral AI is a Paris-based lab offering both proprietary and open-weight models. The September 2026 lineup includes Mistral Medium 3.5 (frontier, 128K context, vision), Mistral Small 4 (efficient), Voxtral TTS (text-to-speech), and Mistral OCR 4 (document intelligence). Mistral Studio is their platform for building, testing, and deploying AI agents. Vibe is their AI agent product for long-horizon work. Check mistral.ai/technology/#pricing for current rates.
OpenAI
GPT-6 Astra, GPT-5.6 Sol/Terra/Luna — plus image, voice, and realtime APIs
OpenAI's September 2026 API lineup spans GPT-6 Astra (flagship frontier), GPT-5.6 Sol (promotional), GPT-5.6 Terra (balanced), and GPT-5.6 Luna (everyday). Beyond text, the platform includes GPT-Image-2.5 (Sunburst and Flare), GPT-Live-1 voice, GPT-Realtime-2.1 for low-latency voice agents, and transcription/translation models. Batch API saves 50% on all models. Check the live table for current per-token rates.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
Mistral
OpenAI
Key differentiators
The only frontier lab offering European data sovereignty with open-weight models — plus Mistral OCR 4 for document intelligence, Voxtral TTS for voice, and Mistral Studio for agentic AI.
A broad AI API platform — GPT-6 Astra to GPT-5.6 Luna covering multiple capability tiers, plus native image, voice, realtime, and transcription APIs under one key.
Frequently asked questions
Mistral FAQs
What are the latest Mistral models?
Mistral's September 2026 lineup includes Mistral Medium 3.5 (frontier, vision, 128K context), Mistral Small 4 (efficient), Voxtral TTS (text-to-speech), and Mistral OCR 4 (document intelligence). Mistral Small 4 is one of the cheapest capable models available.
Are Mistral models open-weight?
Some are. Mistral 7B, Mixtral 8x7B, and Mixtral 8x22B are open-weight and available on Hugging Face. Mistral Medium 3.5 and Mistral Small 4 are proprietary and available via the API.
What is Mistral OCR 4?
Mistral OCR 4 is a document intelligence model specialised for extracting text and structure from PDFs, scanned documents, and images. It is part of Mistral's Document Intelligence domain offering.
OpenAI FAQs
What are the latest OpenAI models as of 2026?
OpenAI's current lineup includes GPT-6 Astra (flagship frontier), GPT-5.6 Sol (promotional), GPT-5.6 Terra (balanced), and GPT-5.6 Luna (everyday). The o-series reasoning models remain available for complex multi-step tasks. Check the live table or platform.openai.com/docs/pricing for current rates.
How much does the OpenAI API cost?
OpenAI uses tiered per-token pricing across its model lineup. The Batch API cuts all prices by 50% for async workloads, and prompt caching reduces input costs by 50% on eligible requests. Check platform.openai.com/docs/pricing for current rates.
Does OpenAI support prompt caching?
Yes. Prompt caching is available on GPT-6 Astra, GPT-5.6 Sol, and other major models. Cached input tokens are billed at 50% of the standard input price, making long-context and repeated-system-prompt workloads significantly cheaper.
Provider resources
Mistral — Mistral Medium 3.5, Mistral Small 4, Voxtral TTS, Mistral OCR 4 — European sovereign AI
Mistral AI is a Paris-based lab offering both proprietary and open-weight models. The September 2026 lineup includes Mistral Medium 3.5 (frontier, 128K context, vision), Mistral Small 4 (efficient), Voxtral TTS (text-to-speech), and Mistral OCR 4 (document intelligence). Mistral Studio is their platform for building, testing, and deploying AI agents. Vibe is their AI agent product for long-horizon work. Check mistral.ai/technology/#pricing for current rates.
The only frontier lab offering European data sovereignty with open-weight models — plus Mistral OCR 4 for document intelligence, Voxtral TTS for voice, and Mistral Studio for agentic AI.
OpenAI — GPT-6 Astra, GPT-5.6 Sol/Terra/Luna — plus image, voice, and realtime APIs
OpenAI's September 2026 API lineup spans GPT-6 Astra (flagship frontier), GPT-5.6 Sol (promotional), GPT-5.6 Terra (balanced), and GPT-5.6 Luna (everyday). Beyond text, the platform includes GPT-Image-2.5 (Sunburst and Flare), GPT-Live-1 voice, GPT-Realtime-2.1 for low-latency voice agents, and transcription/translation models. Batch API saves 50% on all models. Check the live table for current per-token rates.
A broad AI API platform — GPT-6 Astra to GPT-5.6 Luna covering multiple capability tiers, plus native image, voice, realtime, and transcription APIs under one key.
Key strengths compared
Mistral
- Mistral Medium 3.5 with vision — competitive frontier pricing
- Mistral OCR 4 for document intelligence and PDF processing
- Voxtral TTS for voice applications
- Intelligence scores trail OpenAI and Anthropic at frontier tier
- Smaller ecosystem than OpenAI
OpenAI
- Wide API surface: text, image, voice, realtime, transcription, translation, web search, code execution
- GPT-6 Astra at the frontier; GPT-5.6 Sol at promotional pricing
- Prompt caching on all major models (10% of input price)
- No open-weight models — full vendor lock-in
- GPT-6 Astra output pricing is among the highest for frontier tier — check live table
Key weaknesses compared
Mistral
- Intelligence scores trail OpenAI and Anthropic at frontier tier
- Smaller ecosystem than OpenAI
- Vibe and Studio products are newer and less battle-tested
OpenAI
- No open-weight models — full vendor lock-in
- GPT-6 Astra output pricing is among the highest for frontier tier — check live table
- Rate limits can be restrictive on lower tiers
Provider category context
Mistral is a frontier lab, founded in 2023. OpenAI is a frontier lab, founded in 2015. Both are frontier lab providers — the comparison is primarily about pricing, model selection, and feature differentiation within the same tier.
How to choose between them
Both Mistral and OpenAI are frontier labs with proprietary models. Choose based on benchmark performance for your specific task: Mistral leads on mistral medium 3.5 with vision — competitive frontier pricing, while OpenAI leads on wide api surface: text, image, voice, realtime, transcription, translation, web search, code execution. For cost-sensitive workloads, compare the cheapest model tier from each provider in the pricing table above — the gap between efficient-tier models is often larger than between flagship models.