Model comparison
Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.2 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 21× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads 60.2 to 32.2.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.70 / $2.80 for Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B.
- Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 33K.
Side by side
| Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 31.2 | 43.2 |
| Released | 2025-01-30 | 2025-04 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 33K | 131K |
| Max output | 16K | 33K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.70 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.08 | $2.80 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 18 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 42.4 (#100)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1439 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |
Reasoning Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 29.3 (#92)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1428 |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.07 | — |
Math Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 39.0 (#118)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1426 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 40.3 (#121)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1442 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Mistral Small 3: —, Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 39.8 (#55)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1247 |
Multilingual Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 51.9 (#97)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1405 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1463 |
| LMArena French | 1203 | 1452 |
| LMArena German | 1211 | 1424 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | 1385 |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | 1394 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1408 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1428 |
Instruction Following Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 74.2 (#101)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1406 |
Long Context Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 43.4 (#98)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1420 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads
Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 60.2 (#99)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1420 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1366 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1428 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Small 3 better than Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B?
Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.2 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 21× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B lists at $0.70 and $2.80.
Is Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B better for coding?
Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B does, with 131K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B share?
16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B has 18.