Compare / Mistral AI vs Moonshot AI

AI labs compared · October 2026

Mistral AI vs Moonshot AI: which AI lab is ahead?

Each lab's best model on sale goes head to head on every kind of work we measure, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. 19 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

12 models on sale with our resultsMistral AI Best: Mistral Large 4 · newest: Mistral Large 4
7 models on sale with our resultsMoonshot AI Best: Kimi K3 · newest: Kimi K3
Mistral AI wins 2Moonshot AI wins 6

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 8 both are measured on.

Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe). Models on sale means listed on OpenRouter today.

Mistral AI or Moonshot AI? The short answer

Moonshot AI is ahead: its best models beat Mistral AI's in 6 of the 8 kinds of work both are measured on; Mistral AI leads in 2.

  • Pick Mistral AI for sticking to the facts and speed under pressure.
  • Pick Moonshot AI for product listings, decks from an analysis, marketing planning, agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
  • On our overall leaderboard, Kimi K3 is #10 (50 of 100) and Mistral Large 4 is #17 (37).
  • Prices start at $0.058 per million tokens for Mistral AI (Mistral Small 3) and $1.00 for Moonshot AI (Kimi K2 (0711)).

Head to head

37Mistral Large 4
Best Spring Prompt overall score
50Kimi K3
38.4Mistral Large 4
Best Intelligence Index
43.6Kimi K3
$2.06Mistral Large 4
Flagship price, per million tokens
$6.00Kimi K3
$0.058Mistral Small 3
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$1.00Kimi K2 (0711)
12
Models on sale with our results
7

Each line names the model behind the number. Prices are blended, three input tokens to one output, at the developer's list price where we have read it; see every model's price. Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis; overall score from our leaderboard.

Which lab is better for what

For each kind of work, each lab's best model there and its rank among every model on sale. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live 14 of 20Mistral Medium 3.5 13 of 20Kimi K3
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is 16 of 19Mistral Medium 3.5 8 of 19Kimi K3
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled 4 of 8Mistral Large 4 not measured
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending 10 of 19Mistral Large 4 8 of 19Kimi K3
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 21 of 164Mistral Large 4 19 of 164Kimi K2 (0711)
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 24 of 51Kimi K3
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 44 of 198Mistral Large 4 15 of 198Kimi K3
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 86 of 188Mistral Medium 3.5 11 of 188Kimi K3
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 9 of 152Mistral Small 3 28 of 152Kimi K3
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) 8 of 22Mistral Medium 3.5 19 of 22Kimi K3

Every model, by intelligence and price

Each dot is a model on sale with an Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis. Up is smarter; left is cheaper. Hover or tap a dot for its name.

Mistral AIMoonshot AI

01020304050 $0.01$0.1$1$10 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index Mistral Large 4Kimi K3Kimi K2.6Kimi K2.7 CodeKimi K2.5Kimi K2 Thinking

On our overall leaderboard

The 3 of their models we rank overall: one score out of 100 across everything we publish (how the score works). Only models with enough of our own results are ranked.

  1. #10Kimi K350
  2. #17Mistral Large 437
  3. #20Mistral Medium 3.518

Benchmark by benchmark

The headline result of every benchmark both labs have models on: each lab's best model and its rank among the models on sale. Green marks the better rank.

MeasureMistral AIMoonshot AI
Agents and tool use
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 37.7%Mistral Medium 3 · 21 of 3859.1%Kimi K2 (0711) · 6 of 38
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 26.8%Mistral Large 4 · 17 of 10512.6%Kimi K3 · 29 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 50.6%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 58 of 11585.0%Kimi K3 · 11 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 15.1%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 57 of 11346.0%Kimi K3 · 9 of 113
Decks from an analysis
DeckBench · Deck ratingrating, higher is better 646Mistral Medium 3.5 · 16 of 191,229Kimi K3 · 8 of 19
Marketing planning
ROASBench · Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better 37.0Mistral Large 4 · 10 of 1944.1Kimi K3 · 8 of 19
Product listings
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better 17.9%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 16 of 2041.1%Kimi K3 · 9 of 20
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better 10.7%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 9 of 201.8%Kimi K3 · 16 of 20
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 38.4Mistral Large 4 · 29 of 19843.6Kimi K3 · 16 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 35.0%Mistral Large 4 · 54 of 19746.9%Kimi K3 · 16 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 76.9%Mistral Small 4 · 112 of 18793.5%Kimi K3 · 10 of 187
Speed under pressure
BulletBench · Ladder Elo · Bullet 60sladder Elo, higher is better 572Mistral Medium 3.5 · 6 of 2033Kimi K3 · 17 of 20
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 5.1%Mistral Small 3 · 6 of 7910.8%Kimi K2.6 · 52 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,434Mistral Large 3 · 71 of 1131,472Kimi K3 · 16 of 113
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,427Mistral Medium 3.5 · 73 of 1661,488Kimi K3 · 11 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 45.5Mistral Medium 3.5 · 68 of 13864.4Kimi K2.6 · 25 of 138

Their models, one against one

Quick answers

Is Mistral AI or Moonshot AI better?

Moonshot AI is ahead: its best models beat Mistral AI's in 6 of the 8 kinds of work both are measured on; Mistral AI leads in 2.

What is Mistral AI's best model?

Mistral Large 4: #17 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 38.4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

What is Moonshot AI's best model?

Kimi K3: #10 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 43.6 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Mistral AI or Moonshot AI?

Moonshot AI: its best model there, Kimi K2 (0711), ranks 19 of 164 models on sale, against 21 for Mistral AI's Mistral Large 4.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Mistral AI or Moonshot AI?

Moonshot AI: its best model there, Kimi K3, ranks 15 of 198 models on sale, against 44 for Mistral AI's Mistral Large 4.

Which is better for writing, Mistral AI or Moonshot AI?

Moonshot AI: its best model there, Kimi K3, ranks 11 of 188 models on sale, against 86 for Mistral AI's Mistral Medium 3.5.

Which is cheaper, Mistral AI or Moonshot AI?

Mistral AI's cheapest model with results, Mistral Small 3, costs $0.058 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $1.00 for Kimi K2 (0711) from Moonshot AI.

Other labs compared

Which model is best for your product?

Benchmarks aren't your data. We test the models from Mistral AI, Moonshot AI and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard