The closest alternative to Mistral Medium 3 is R1 — comparable intelligence (18.8 vs 18.8); for a cheaper option, MiniMax M3 runs $0.300/M vs $0.400/M; for more speed, Mercury 2 hits 590 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
R1 is the closest alternative to Mistral Medium 3, with an Intelligence Index of 18.8 (Mistral Medium 3 scores 18.8) at $0.700 per million input tokens.
Yes — MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per million input tokens versus $0.400 for Mistral Medium 3, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Mistral Medium 3 — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.