# Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3.5 Max Preview

> Qwen3.5 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.7 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-small-3-vs-qwen3-5-max-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5 Max Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3.5 Max Preview leads 66.1 to 32.4.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 44.7 |
| Rank | 268 | 72 |
| Context | 33K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 43.4 (#79)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1488 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 29.6 (#81)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1483 |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.06 | — |

## Math

- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 37.3 (#99)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1473 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 41.1 (#104)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1489 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 56.4 (#21)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1465 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1534 |
| LMArena French | 1202 | 1483 |
| LMArena German | 1211 | 1487 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | 1497 |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | 1438 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1472 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1470 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 77.2 (#28)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1467 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 45.2 (#44)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1477 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)
- Qwen3.5 Max Preview: 66.1 (#39)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.5 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1471 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1464 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1478 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Small 3 better than Qwen3.5 Max Preview?

Qwen3.5 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.7 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3.5 Max Preview better for coding?

Qwen3.5 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.4 versus 36.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Qwen3.5 Max Preview share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 Max Preview has 17.