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Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Claude Haiku 4.5

Token pricing, context window and real monthly cost, side by side. Claude Haiku 4.5 is the cheaper of the two for a typical workload — about 1.5× less.

cheaper for a typical workload
Claude Haiku 4.5
saves 33% vs Mistral Medium 3.5 at 1,500 in / 500 out × 200,000/mo
Mistral Medium 3.5 $1,200/mo
Claude Haiku 4.5 $800/mo
Mini vs Mid a smaller technical class than Mistral Medium 3.5 — cheaper, but not a drop-in substitute

Positioned by published specs — size, context and modality — not measured performance; a smaller model can sometimes outperform a larger one on your task.

Cost versus technical classMistral Medium 3.5: $1,200/mo, Mid class. Claude Haiku 4.5: $800/mo, Mini class. Plotted by monthly cost (horizontal) against technical class from size and context (vertical).best valuepremiumbudgetoverpricedMistral Medium 3.5$1,200/mo · MidClaude Haiku 4.5$800/mo · Mini← lower cost · monthly $ · higher cost →
↑ technical class (size & context)
One class apart

Mistral Medium 3.5 is one class larger (Mid vs Mini). Lean to the cheaper Claude Haiku 4.5 unless your task is demanding enough to need the larger class.

Mistral Medium 3.5 versus Claude Haiku 4.5 specifications and price.
metric Mistral Medium 3.5 Claude Haiku 4.5
Input / 1M $1.50 $1.00
Output / 1M $7.50 $5.00
Context 262K 200K
Technical class Mid Mini
Cost @ typical workload $1,200/mo $800/mo
Modality text + image text + image
Price source list list
Provider Mistral Anthropic

Snapshot . Cost uses a typical workload; tune it in the calculator. How we measure →

Which should you pick?

On a typical workload, Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $800/mo against Mistral Medium 3.5's $1,200/mo — roughly 1.5× cheaper. But the ranking depends on your output-to-input ratio: output is the pricier direction for both, so an output-heavy job (code generation, long answers) widens the gap while an input-heavy one (summarization, retrieval) narrows it. If you need to fit more in a single prompt, Mistral Medium 3.5 has the larger 262K-token window (~393 pages). By technical class (size and context, not measured capability), Mistral Medium 3.5 is a Mid and Claude Haiku 4.5 a Mini — so the lower price partly reflects a smaller class, not just a discount.

These are list and routed market prices, not measured outcomes. Two models at the same rate can still cost different amounts to finish the same task, because verbose or reasoning-heavy models emit more tokens. That gap is exactly what measured cost-per-task captures. The technical-class read above is likewise spec-based — size, context and modality, not measured performance — so a smaller model can still outperform a larger one on your specific task.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 or Claude Haiku 4.5 cheaper?

For a typical workload (1,500 input + 500 output tokens × 200,000 requests/month), Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $800/mo versus $1,200/mo for Mistral Medium 3.5 — about 1.5× less. Because output is priced higher than input, the winner can flip if your workload writes much more or less than this; check your own numbers in the calculator.

What's the main difference between Mistral Medium 3.5 and Claude Haiku 4.5?

On price, Mistral Medium 3.5 is $1.50/$7.50 per 1M (in/out) and Claude Haiku 4.5 is $1.00/$5.00. By technical class (size & context) it's Mid (Mistral Medium 3.5) versus Mini (Claude Haiku 4.5). Mistral Medium 3.5 has the larger context window at 262K tokens.

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