Model comparison
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus vs Mistral Small 3
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 7.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 10 shared benchmarks.
DeepSeek
Mistral AISummary
- They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads 61.0 to 32.2.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.27 / $1 for DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus.
- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus accepts more context: 164K tokens versus 33K.
Side by side
| DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 43.1 | 31.2 |
| Released | 2025-09-22 | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 164K | 33K |
| Max output | 147K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.27 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1 | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 16 | 24 |
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Category by category
Coding DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 42.0 (#113), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1426 | 1246 |
| SciCode | 40.6% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 745.17 | — |
Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 26.4 (#133), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1426 | 1233 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.4% | — |
| CritPt | 1.7% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| DTBench | 81.3% | — |
| LMCA | 28.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.07 |
Math DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 38.5 (#137), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1402 | 1240 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |
Knowledge Not comparable
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: —, Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1202 |
Multilingual DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 52.1 (#92), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1407 | 1198 |
| LMArena Russian | 1436 | 1216 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1204 |
| LMArena French | — | 1203 |
| LMArena German | — | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1188 |
Instruction Following DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 74.0 (#106), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1404 | 1214 |
Long Context DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 43.4 (#97), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1421 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 61.0 (#92), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1419 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1403 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1411 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus better than Mistral Small 3?
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 7.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus lists at $0.27 and $1.
Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.0 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus does, with 164K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Mistral Small 3 share?
10 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus has 16 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.