Model comparison
Ministral 3B vs Qwen3.6 Flash
Qwen3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.8 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 4.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 4 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Ministral 3B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Flash in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Flash leads 42.1 to 10.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 25.3% for Ministral 3B and 83.3% for Qwen3.6 Flash.
- Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.10 per million input/output tokens, against $0.19 / $1.13 for Qwen3.6 Flash.
- Qwen3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Ministral 3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Ministral 3B | Qwen3.6 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 26.2 | 38.8 |
| Released | 2024-10-01 | 2026-04-27 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 1M |
| Max output | 262K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.10 | $0.19 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.10 | $1.13 |
| Results tracked | 6 | 13 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Ministral 3B: —, Qwen3.6 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| ALE-Bench | — | 326.4 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Flash leads
Ministral 3B: 18.4 (#282), Qwen3.6 Flash: 29.0 (#96)
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| DTBench | 51.7% | 77.1% |
| LMCA | 5.5% | 31% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 118.1 | 143.26 |
| SimpleBench | — | 35.2% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 20% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 18% |
Math Qwen3.6 Flash leads
Ministral 3B: 26.6 (#258), Qwen3.6 Flash: 39.0 (#117)
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 22.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 84.4% |
| MATH Level 5 | 14.4% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 10.3% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 0% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Flash leads
Ministral 3B: 10.4 (#302), Qwen3.6 Flash: 42.1 (#100)
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 25.3% | 83.3% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 15.9% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.3% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Ministral 3B better than Qwen3.6 Flash?
Qwen3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.8 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 4.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Ministral 3B or Qwen3.6 Flash?
Ministral 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.10 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Flash lists at $0.19 and $1.13.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Flash does, with 1M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Ministral 3B and Qwen3.6 Flash share?
4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Ministral 3B has 6 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Flash has 13.