Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Mistral Large 2
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
- PriceMistral Large 2
Mistral Large 2 is roughly 2.5× cheaper on output tokens ($6.00 vs $15.00 per 1M).
- Context windowClaude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
Across 1 shared benchmarks the two models split wins evenly. Look at task-specific scores rather than the average.
- ModalitiesClaude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Mistral Large 2.
- OpennessMistral Large 2
Mistral Large 2 ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.
It's a genuine coin-flip between Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Large 2: 2 category wins each, with the rest tied. Mistral Large 2 is roughly 2.5× cheaper on output tokens ($6.00 vs $15.00 per 1M). Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
Across 1 shared benchmarks the two models split wins evenly. Look at task-specific scores rather than the average. They differ in modality coverage, Claude 3.5 Sonnet handles text, vision while Mistral Large 2 handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Mistral Large 2 ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the newer of the two, released 3 months after Mistral Large 2, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is usually picked for coding llm and code review workloads, while Mistral Large 2 sees more deployments in coding llm and multilingual. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Mistral Large 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Mistral |
| Released | Oct 2024 | Jul 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | $6.00 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2024-04 |
| Open weights | No | Yes (Mistral Research License) |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs $15.00
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs $150
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs $336
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: $31.50 vs $15.00 per month, model B comes out ahead. Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: $315 vs $150 per month, model B comes out ahead. RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: $540 vs $336 per month, model B comes out ahead.
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet$1.05
- Mistral Large 2$0.500
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- MMLU,84.0
- HumanEval92.092.0
Claude 3.5 Sonnet fits when…
- Mature and battle-tested
- Strong code
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Large 2.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Mistral Large 2 fits when…
- Strong code and math
- EU data residency
- Multilingual
- Cost-sensitive workloads, 2.5× cheaper than Claude 3.5 Sonnet on output tokens.
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Research License).
Consider Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.
Frequently asked
Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Mistral Large 2 cheaper?
Mistral Large 2 is cheaper at $6.00 / 1M tokens per million output tokens, vs $15.00 / 1M tokens for Claude 3.5 Sonnet.Which has the larger context window?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Mistral Large 2.Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Mistral Large 2 better for coding?
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Large 2 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Mistral Large 2 ships open weights (Mistral Research License). Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.When were Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Large 2 released?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released by Anthropic on 2024-10-22. Mistral Large 2 was released by Mistral on 2024-07-24.
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