Pick Hunyuan Hy3 for frontier-level reported reasoning and science (gpqa diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost or runs a 295b model at the cost of a 21b — only 21b parameters active per token. Pick Mistral Medium 3 for strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00 or general reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks. Choose Hunyuan Hy3 if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Mistral Medium 3 if you want a managed API.
Hunyuan Hy3 (Tencent, China) and Mistral Medium 3 (Mistral AI, France) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Hunyuan Hy3 is a 295B Apache-2.0 open MoE that reaches frontier reasoning quality while running at roughly 21B active-parameter cost. Mistral Medium 3 is mistral's mid-tier model at $0.40/$2.00 — efficient general capability with a 128K window, below the 1M-context frontier tier. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences
Cost model: Hunyuan Hy3 ships open weights you can self-host (hardware cost only, no per-token fee), while Mistral Medium 3 is API-metered at $0.4/$2 per 1M tokens. Your choice depends on whether you want zero marginal cost at the price of running infrastructure.
Context window: Hunyuan Hy3 holds 2× more — 256K (~384 pages) vs 128K (~192 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
Recency: Hunyuan Hy3 is the newer model by about 14 months (released July 6, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Ecosystem: this is a China-vs-France matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Specifications
Spec
Hunyuan Hy3
Mistral Medium 3
Provider
Tencent (China)
Mistral AI (France)
Released
July 6, 2026
May 7, 2025
Context window
256K (~384 pages)
128K (~192 pages)
Price (in/out)
Open weight (self-host / free)
$0.4/$2 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
No — API only
Modalities
text, code
text, image, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Frontier-level reported reasoning and science (GPQA Diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost: Hunyuan Hy3 — Mistral Medium 3 is comparatively weak here — a mid-tier model, not a frontier reasoner
Runs a 295B model at the cost of a 21B — only 21B parameters active per token: Hunyuan Hy3 — Its 256K window holds about 2× more than Mistral Medium 3's 128K in a single prompt.
Clean, unrestricted Apache-2.0 license with no geographic carve-out: Hunyuan Hy3 — A 295B Apache-2.0 open MoE that reaches frontier reasoning quality while running at roughly 21B active-parameter cost — and it carries the larger 256K context.
Strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00: Mistral Medium 3 — Mistral Medium 3 lists strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00 among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy3 does not.
General reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks: Mistral Medium 3 — Mistral Medium 3 lists general reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy3 does not.
Efficient mid-tier deployment for production workloads: Mistral Medium 3 — Mistral Medium 3 lists efficient mid-tier deployment for production workloads among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy3 does not.
Lowest cost at scale: Hunyuan Hy3 — Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of Mistral Medium 3's $0.4/$2 per 1M tokens.
Largest single-prompt input: Hunyuan Hy3 — Its 256K window is about 2× larger than Mistral Medium 3's 128K, fitting roughly 384 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume: Hunyuan Hy3 — At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts Mistral Medium 3, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases: Hunyuan Hy3 — Larger 256K window fits more in one prompt.
A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs: Hunyuan Hy3 — Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Mistral Medium 3 is API-only.
Anyone whose priority is frontier-level reported reasoning and science (gpqa diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost: Hunyuan Hy3 — It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00: Mistral Medium 3 — That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules: Mistral Medium 3 or Hunyuan Hy3 — Origin (China vs France) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
Hunyuan Hy3: where it fits
A 295B Apache-2.0 open MoE that reaches frontier reasoning quality while running at roughly 21B active-parameter cost. Released July 6, 2026 by Tencent, it is built for frontier-level reported reasoning and science (GPQA Diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost, runs a 295B model at the cost of a 21B — only 21B parameters active per token, clean, unrestricted Apache-2.0 license with no geographic carve-out, and broad day-one ecosystem support plus an FP8 checkpoint.
Its trade-offs are real: benchmarks are largely self-reported, and the ultra-low hosted pricing is a limited promotion, and the hosted API is China-jurisdiction, and self-hosting a 295B MoE still needs serious hardware. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
Mistral Medium 3: where it fits
Mistral's mid-tier model at $0.40/$2.00 — efficient general capability with a 128K window, below the 1M-context frontier tier. Released May 7, 2025 by Mistral AI, it is built for strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00, general reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks, efficient mid-tier deployment for production workloads, and text and image input.
Its trade-offs: a 128K context — smaller than the 1M-window flagships here, no published SWE-Bench Verified score, a mid-tier model, not a frontier reasoner, and proprietary, unlike Mistral's open-weight releases. At $0.4 in / $2 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
The defining split here is open vs. closed. Hunyuan Hy3 gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Mistral Medium 3 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hunyuan Hy3 or Mistral Medium 3 better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Hunyuan Hy3 leans toward frontier-level reported reasoning and science (gpqa diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost while Mistral Medium 3 leans toward strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Hunyuan Hy3 or Mistral Medium 3?
Hunyuan Hy3 is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Mistral Medium 3 is API-metered at $0.4/$2 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hunyuan Hy3 — 256K vs 128K, about 2× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Hunyuan Hy3 and Mistral Medium 3 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Hunyuan Hy3, Mistral Medium 3 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Hunyuan Hy3 or Mistral Medium 3?
Hunyuan Hy3 — released July 6, 2026, about 14 months after Mistral Medium 3.
Hunyuan Hy3 vs Mistral Medium 3
Tencent · China | Mistral AI · France · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Hunyuan Hy3 for frontier-level reported reasoning and science (gpqa diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost or runs a 295b model at the cost of a 21b — only 21b parameters active per token. Pick Mistral Medium 3 for strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00 or general reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks. Choose Hunyuan Hy3 if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Mistral Medium 3 if you want a managed API.
Hunyuan Hy3 (Tencent, China) and Mistral Medium 3 (Mistral AI, France) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Hunyuan Hy3 is a 295B Apache-2.0 open MoE that reaches frontier reasoning quality while running at roughly 21B active-parameter cost. Mistral Medium 3 is mistral's mid-tier model at $0.40/$2.00 — efficient general capability with a 128K window, below the 1M-context frontier tier. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences at a glance
▸Cost model: Hunyuan Hy3 ships open weights you can self-host (hardware cost only, no per-token fee), while Mistral Medium 3 is API-metered at $0.4/$2 per 1M tokens. Your choice depends on whether you want zero marginal cost at the price of running infrastructure.
▸Context window: Hunyuan Hy3 holds 2× more — 256K (~384 pages) vs 128K (~192 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
▸Recency: Hunyuan Hy3 is the newer model by about 14 months (released July 6, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
▸Ecosystem: this is a China-vs-France matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Side-by-side specs
Spec
Hunyuan Hy3
Mistral Medium 3
Provider
Tencent (China)
Mistral AI (France)
Released
July 6, 2026
May 7, 2025
Context window
256K (~384 pages)
128K (~192 pages)
Price (in/out)
Open weight (self-host / free)
$0.4/$2 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
No — API only
Modalities
text, code
text, image, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Frontier-level reported reasoning and science (GPQA Diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost
Hunyuan Hy3
Mistral Medium 3 is comparatively weak here — a mid-tier model, not a frontier reasoner
Runs a 295B model at the cost of a 21B — only 21B parameters active per token
Hunyuan Hy3
Its 256K window holds about 2× more than Mistral Medium 3's 128K in a single prompt.
Clean, unrestricted Apache-2.0 license with no geographic carve-out
Hunyuan Hy3
A 295B Apache-2.0 open MoE that reaches frontier reasoning quality while running at roughly 21B active-parameter cost — and it carries the larger 256K context.
Strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00
Mistral Medium 3
Mistral Medium 3 lists strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00 among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy3 does not.
General reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks
Mistral Medium 3
Mistral Medium 3 lists general reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy3 does not.
Efficient mid-tier deployment for production workloads
Mistral Medium 3
Mistral Medium 3 lists efficient mid-tier deployment for production workloads among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy3 does not.
Lowest cost at scale
Hunyuan Hy3
Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of Mistral Medium 3's $0.4/$2 per 1M tokens.
Largest single-prompt input
Hunyuan Hy3
Its 256K window is about 2× larger than Mistral Medium 3's 128K, fitting roughly 384 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ Hunyuan Hy3
At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts Mistral Medium 3, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ Hunyuan Hy3
Larger 256K window fits more in one prompt.
A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs
→ Hunyuan Hy3
Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Mistral Medium 3 is API-only.
Anyone whose priority is frontier-level reported reasoning and science (gpqa diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost
→ Hunyuan Hy3
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00
→ Mistral Medium 3
That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules
→ Mistral Medium 3 or Hunyuan Hy3
Origin (China vs France) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
Hunyuan Hy3: where it fits
A 295B Apache-2.0 open MoE that reaches frontier reasoning quality while running at roughly 21B active-parameter cost. Released July 6, 2026 by Tencent, it is built for frontier-level reported reasoning and science (GPQA Diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost, runs a 295B model at the cost of a 21B — only 21B parameters active per token, clean, unrestricted Apache-2.0 license with no geographic carve-out, and broad day-one ecosystem support plus an FP8 checkpoint.
Its trade-offs are real: benchmarks are largely self-reported, and the ultra-low hosted pricing is a limited promotion, and the hosted API is China-jurisdiction, and self-hosting a 295B MoE still needs serious hardware. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
Mistral Medium 3: where it fits
Mistral's mid-tier model at $0.40/$2.00 — efficient general capability with a 128K window, below the 1M-context frontier tier. Released May 7, 2025 by Mistral AI, it is built for strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00, general reasoning, coding and multimodal tasks, efficient mid-tier deployment for production workloads, and text and image input.
Its trade-offs: a 128K context — smaller than the 1M-window flagships here, no published SWE-Bench Verified score, a mid-tier model, not a frontier reasoner, and proprietary, unlike Mistral's open-weight releases. At $0.4 in / $2 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
The defining split here is open vs. closed. Hunyuan Hy3 gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Mistral Medium 3 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.
Want both Hunyuan Hy3 and Mistral Medium 3 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.
Is Hunyuan Hy3 or Mistral Medium 3 better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Hunyuan Hy3 leans toward frontier-level reported reasoning and science (gpqa diamond 90.4) at low active-parameter cost while Mistral Medium 3 leans toward strong cost-to-capability at $0.40/$2.00, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Hunyuan Hy3 or Mistral Medium 3?
Hunyuan Hy3 is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Mistral Medium 3 is API-metered at $0.4/$2 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hunyuan Hy3 — 256K vs 128K, about 2× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Hunyuan Hy3 and Mistral Medium 3 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Hunyuan Hy3, Mistral Medium 3 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Hunyuan Hy3 or Mistral Medium 3?
Hunyuan Hy3 — released July 6, 2026, about 14 months after Mistral Medium 3.
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.