Pixtral 12B vs SD 3.5 Medium

Compare Pixtral 12B and SD 3.5 Medium: pricing, performance, context window, latency, and best use cases. Side-by-side comparison on XALEN.

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

All Mistral models All Stability AI models What is an LLM API? Python Quickstart What is inference?
Feature Pixtral 12B SD 3.5 Medium
CategoryVisionImage
Parameters12B2.5B
Context Window128KN/A
Input Price$0.02/1M tokens$0.003/image/1M tokens
Output Price$0.04/1M tokensN/A/1M tokens
Latency~200ms~2s

Choose Pixtral 12B when:

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

Low cost vision, Fast, Compact

Choose SD 3.5 Medium when:

  • ✓ General imagery
  • ✓ Batch generation
  • ✓ Prototyping
Key Strengths:

Good quality, Fast, Open weights

Verdict: Pixtral 12B vs SD 3.5 Medium

For cost efficiency, SD 3.5 Medium wins at $0.003/image/1M input tokens. For speed, Pixtral 12B is faster at ~200ms. Pixtral 12B excels at Simple image tasks while SD 3.5 Medium is better for General imagery. Both are available on XALEN through a single API — try them in the Playground to see which fits your workload.

Detailed Analysis

Pricing Comparison

Pixtral 12B costs $0.02/1M input tokens and $0.04/1M output tokens. SD 3.5 Medium costs $0.003/image input and N/A output. SD 3.5 Medium is 6.7x cheaper on input tokens. XALEN offers batch processing at 50% discount on both models.

Performance & Context

Pixtral 12B has a 128K context window with ~200ms latency. SD 3.5 Medium offers N/A context at ~2s. Pixtral 12B has the larger context window.

Best For

Pixtral 12B (Vision) is optimized for: Simple image tasks, Classification, OCR. SD 3.5 Medium (Image) works best for: General imagery, Batch generation, Prototyping.

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

# Use SD 3.5 Medium
response_b = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="stable-diffusion-3-5-medium",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Your question here"}]
)

Start Building with XALEN

200+ AI models. One API. Pay-as-you-go.

Get API Key Try in Playground

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Pixtral 12B or SD 3.5 Medium?

Pixtral 12B (Vision, 12B) offers Low cost vision. SD 3.5 Medium (Image, 2.5B) offers Good quality. Choose Pixtral 12B for Simple image tasks or SD 3.5 Medium for General imagery.

How much does Pixtral 12B cost vs SD 3.5 Medium?

Pixtral 12B: $0.02/1M input, $0.04/1M output. SD 3.5 Medium: $0.003/image/1M input, N/A/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 Pixtral 12B and SD 3.5 Medium by changing the model parameter. No code changes needed.

Related Comparisons

Pixtral 12B vs Vedika Vision Pixtral 12B vs DALL-E 3 Pixtral 12B vs Imagen 3 Pixtral 12B vs Llama 3.2 90B Vision Pixtral 12B vs Llama 3.2 11B Vision Pixtral 12B vs Qwen 2.5 VL 72B

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