Model comparison
Magistral Small vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.6 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 Qwen3.6 35B-A3B in 3 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads 28.0 to 6.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 30% for Magistral Small and 86.7% for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.49 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Magistral Small | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.2 | 37.6 |
| Released | 2025-06-10 | 2026-04-01 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Max output | 40K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $0.25 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $1.49 |
| Results tracked | 10 | 14 |
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Category by category
Coding Magistral Small leads
Magistral Small: 38.4 (#176), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 37.2 (#196)
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Magistral Small: —, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 22.1 (#134)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 23% |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Magistral Small: 6.8 (#350), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 28.0 (#109)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 3% | 26% |
| DTBench | 61.3% | 73.9% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 133.19 | 143.93 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 6.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 41.6% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 5% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 22% |
| LMCA | — | 29.7% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 44.4% |
Math Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Magistral Small: 26.2 (#261), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 38.9 (#121)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 30% | 86.7% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 20.4% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads
Magistral Small: 30.9 (#223), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 51.3 (#68)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | 84.8% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Magistral Small better than Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.6 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Magistral Small or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.49 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.
Is Magistral Small or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B better for coding?
Magistral Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.4 versus 37.2 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B does, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Magistral Small and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B share?
7 benchmarks have published results for both models. Magistral Small has 10 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B has 14.