Model comparison
Magistral Small vs Qwen3.5-9B
Qwen3.5-9B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.8 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 7 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 7 benchmarks with published results for both. Magistral Small scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3.5-9B in 3 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 23.1 to 6.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 30% for Magistral Small and 61.7% for Qwen3.5-9B.
- Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
- Qwen3.5-9B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Magistral Small | Qwen3.5-9B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.2 | 33.8 |
| Released | 2025-06-10 | 2026-02-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Max output | 40K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $0.15 |
| Results tracked | 10 | 10 |
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Category by category
Coding Magistral Small leads
Magistral Small: 38.4 (#176), Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 35.2% | 27.5% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Magistral Small: —, Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 9.2% |
Reasoning Qwen3.5-9B leads
Magistral Small: 6.8 (#350), Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 3% | 12% |
| DTBench | 61.3% | 71.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 133.19 | 139.46 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 6.3% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 5% | — |
| LMCA | — | 24.5% |
Math Qwen3.5-9B leads
Magistral Small: 26.2 (#261), Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 30% | 61.7% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 48.5% |
Knowledge Qwen3.5-9B leads
Magistral Small: 30.9 (#223), Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | 79% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Magistral Small better than Qwen3.5-9B?
Qwen3.5-9B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.8 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Magistral Small or Qwen3.5-9B?
Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.
Is Magistral Small or Qwen3.5-9B better for coding?
Magistral Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.4 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5-9B does, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Magistral Small and Qwen3.5-9B share?
7 benchmarks have published results for both models. Magistral Small has 10 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.