Model comparison

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale vs Mistral Small 3

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.7 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 15× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 11, 2026. 1 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale

DeepSeek

39.7

Rank #162 Reported

Mistral Small 3

Mistral AI

31.2

Rank #278 Confirmed

Summary

They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale scores higher in 3 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale leads 32.9 to 18.9.
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.58 / $1.68 for DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale.
DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale accepts more context: 128K tokens versus 33K.

Side by side

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale and Mistral Small 3 specifications
	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
Provider	DeepSeek	Mistral AI
Noometry Index	39.7	31.2
Released	2025-12-01	2025-01-30
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	128K	33K
Max output	128K	16K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.58	$0.05
Output $ / M tokens	$1.68	$0.08
Results tracked	3	24

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale leads

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: 40.4 (#140), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
WeirdML	46.7%	—
BigCodeBench Instruct	—	45.3%
LMArena Coding	—	1246
BigCodeBench Complete	—	50.4%

Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale leads

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: 32.9 (#73), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
SimpleBench	52.6%	—
Chess Puzzles	—	0%
LMArena Hard Prompts	—	1233
Epoch Capabilities Index	—	127.07

Math Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	6.7%
LMArena Math	—	1240

Knowledge Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
GPQA Diamond	—	47.3%
Confabulations	—	25.2%
LMArena Expert	—	1202

Multilingual Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
LMArena Non-English	—	1198
LMArena Chinese	—	1204
LMArena French	—	1203
LMArena German	—	1211
LMArena Japanese	—	1111
LMArena Korean	—	1188
LMArena Russian	—	1216

Instruction Following Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
LMArena Instruction Following	—	1214

Long Context Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: —, Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
LMArena Longer Query	—	1246

Writing & Preference DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale leads

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale: 46.0 (#222), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale	Mistral Small 3
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1276	707
LMArena Text	—	1234
LMArena Creative Writing	—	1195
LMArena Multi-Turn	—	1217

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale better than Mistral Small 3?

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale 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-V3.2-Speciale lists at $0.58 and $1.68.

Is DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.4 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale does, with 128K tokens against 33K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale and Mistral Small 3 share?

1 benchmark has published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale has 3 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.