# DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus vs Mistral Small 3

> DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.6 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 8.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/deepseek-v3-1-terminus-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 10

## Summary

- They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads 61.3 to 32.4.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $1 for DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus.
- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus accepts more context: 164K tokens versus 33K.

## Snapshot

| | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 42.6 | 30.9 |
| Rank | 96 | 268 |
| Context | 164K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.30 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $1 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 41.5 (#114)
- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1426 | 1246 |
| SciCode | 40.6% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 745.17 | — |

## Reasoning

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 25.7 (#126)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1427 | 1233 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.4% | — |
| CritPt | 1.7% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| DTBench | 81.3% | — |
| LMCA | 28.6% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.06 |

## Math

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 35.7 (#138)
- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1402 | 1240 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |

## Knowledge

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: —
- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1202 |

## Multilingual

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 52.3 (#87)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1407 | 1198 |
| LMArena Russian | 1434 | 1216 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1204 |
| LMArena French | — | 1202 |
| LMArena German | — | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1188 |

## Instruction Following

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 74.4 (#96)
- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1406 | 1214 |

## Long Context

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 43.5 (#88)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1426 | 1246 |

## Writing & Preference

- DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 61.3 (#87)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1420 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1404 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1411 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |

## FAQ

### Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus better than Mistral Small 3?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.6 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 8.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus 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-V3.1-Terminus lists at $0.30 and $1.

### Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.5 versus 36.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus does, with 164K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Mistral Small 3 share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus has 16 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.