Mistral Medium 3 vs Pixtral 12B

Compare Mistral Medium 3 and Pixtral 12B: pricing, performance, context window, latency, and best use cases. Side-by-side comparison on XALEN.

Updated 2026-05-21 · By Abhishek Raj · Our methodology

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Feature Mistral Medium 3 Pixtral 12B
CategoryOpen SourceVision
Parameters70B12B
Context Window128K128K
Input Price$0.04/1M tokens$0.02/1M tokens
Output Price$0.08/1M tokens$0.04/1M tokens
Latency~300ms~200ms

Choose Mistral Medium 3 when:

  • ✓ Production APIs
  • ✓ Template filling
  • ✓ General purpose
Key Strengths:

Good balance, Strong function calling, Reliable

Choose Pixtral 12B when:

  • ✓ Simple image tasks
  • ✓ Classification
  • ✓ OCR
Key Strengths:

Low cost vision, Fast, Compact

Verdict: Mistral Medium 3 vs Pixtral 12B

For cost efficiency, Pixtral 12B wins at $0.02/1M input tokens. For speed, Pixtral 12B is faster at ~200ms. Mistral Medium 3 excels at Production APIs while Pixtral 12B is better for Simple image tasks. Both are available on XALEN through a single API — try them in the Playground to see which fits your workload.

Detailed Analysis

Pricing Comparison

Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.04/1M input tokens and $0.08/1M output tokens. Pixtral 12B costs $0.02 input and $0.04 output. Pixtral 12B is 2.0x cheaper on input tokens. XALEN offers batch processing at 50% discount on both models.

Performance & Context

Mistral Medium 3 has a 128K context window with ~300ms latency. Pixtral 12B offers 128K context at ~200ms. Both have identical context windows.

Best For

Mistral Medium 3 (Open Source) is optimized for: Production APIs, Template filling, General purpose. Pixtral 12B (Vision) works best for: Simple image tasks, Classification, OCR.

Try Both on XALEN

Both models are available through XALEN's OpenAI-compatible API. Switch between them by changing the model parameter:

from xalen import XALEN

client = XALEN(api_key="xln_test_YOUR_KEY")

# Use Mistral Medium 3
response_a = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="mistral-medium-3",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Your question here"}]
)

# Use Pixtral 12B
response_b = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="pixtral-12b",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Your question here"}]
)

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Get API Key Try in Playground

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Mistral Medium 3 or Pixtral 12B?

Mistral Medium 3 (Open Source, 70B) offers Good balance. Pixtral 12B (Vision, 12B) offers Low cost vision. Choose Mistral Medium 3 for Production APIs or Pixtral 12B for Simple image tasks.

How much does Mistral Medium 3 cost vs Pixtral 12B?

Mistral Medium 3: $0.04/1M input, $0.08/1M output. Pixtral 12B: $0.02/1M input, $0.04/1M output. Both available on XALEN with batch processing at 50% discount.

Can I use both models on XALEN?

Yes. XALEN provides 200+ models through a single OpenAI-compatible API. Switch between Mistral Medium 3 and Pixtral 12B by changing the model parameter. No code changes needed.

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Last updated: 2026-05-21. Pricing and specifications may change. Check pricing page for latest rates.