# Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

> Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 51× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-small-3-vs-qwen3-6-max-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 52.2 to 15.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 6.7% for Mistral Small 3 and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 51.1 |
| Rank | 268 | 36 |
| Context | 33K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1.30 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $7.80 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.6 (#50)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1472 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Mistral Small 3: —
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 40.8 (#47)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 20% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1457 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.06 | 149.27 |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| DTBench | — | 87.2% |
| LMCA | — | 42.5% |

## Math

- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 52.2 (#40)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 23.1% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#35)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | 87.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1476 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 52% |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.3 (#46)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1436 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1487 |
| LMArena French | 1202 | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1444 |
| LMArena German | 1211 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1452 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.8 (#51)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1437 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#59)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1457 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 64.0 (#58)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1456 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Small 3 better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 51× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.

### Is Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 36.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview does, with 262K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.