# DeepSeek-V3.1 vs Mistral Small 3

> DeepSeek-V3.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.2 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 7.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/deepseek-v3-1-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where DeepSeek-V3.1 leads 60.5 to 32.4.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $0.95 for DeepSeek-V3.1.
- DeepSeek-V3.1 accepts more context: 164K tokens versus 33K.

## Snapshot

| | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 42.2 | 30.9 |
| Rank | 106 | 268 |
| Context | 164K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.25 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $0.95 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 39.8 (#140)
- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1417 | 1246 |
| WeirdML | 38.4% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |

## Reasoning

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 27.3 (#109)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1417 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 139.92 | 127.06 |
| SimpleBench | 40% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 53.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| DTBench | 82.7% | — |
| LMCA | 24.3% | — |
| ForecastBench | 58 | — |

## Math

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 36.1 (#125)
- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1420 | 1240 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |

## Knowledge

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 43.0 (#86)
- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1403 | 1202 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.5% | — |

## Multilingual

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 51.8 (#100)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1400 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1470 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1447 | 1202 |
| LMArena German | 1412 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1374 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1337 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1405 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1429 | — |

## Instruction Following

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 74.1 (#105)
- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1400 | 1214 |

## Long Context

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 36.3 (#227)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1422 | 1246 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 52.8% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- DeepSeek-V3.1: 60.5 (#93)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1420 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1195 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1436 | 707 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1408 | 1217 |

## FAQ

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

DeepSeek-V3.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.2 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 7.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-V3.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1 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 lists at $0.25 and $0.95.

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

DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.8 versus 36.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

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

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

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1 has 27 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.