Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen 3 Max
Small, open-weights, surprisingly sharp. Meanwhile, qwen 3 max: alibaba's flagship. top-tier multilingual and coding.
Side-by-side
Specs
| Dimension | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen 3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral | Alibaba |
| Released | 2025-09 | 2025-10 |
| Context window | 128K | ✓256K |
| Output max | 8K | ✓32K |
| Input /M | ✓$0.20 | $1.20 |
| Output /M | ✓$0.60 | $4.00 |
| Modalities | text | ✓text, image |
| Open weights | ✓yes | no |
Scorecard
Dimension-by-dimension
Mistral Small 3
Qwen 3 Max
reasoning
6.0
8.0
coding
7.0
9.0
writing
7.0
8.0
speed
9.0
7.0
value
10.0
9.0
Verdict
Which wins, by use case
| Use case | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| coding | Qwen 3 Max | a clear edge on our weighted coding score |
| writing | Qwen 3 Max | a clear edge on our weighted writing score |
| chat | Mistral Small 3 | a clear edge on our weighted chat score |
| agents | Qwen 3 Max | a decisive lead on our weighted agents score |
| summarization | Mistral Small 3 | a clear edge on our weighted summarization score |
| translation | Mistral Small 3 | a coin flip on our weighted translation score |
| reasoning | Qwen 3 Max | a decisive lead on our weighted reasoning score |
| research | Qwen 3 Max | a clear edge on our weighted research score |
| vision and multimodal | Qwen 3 Max | a coin flip on our weighted vision score |
| Cheapest AI models for bulk workloads | Mistral Small 3 | a clear edge on our weighted cheap-bulk score |
Bottom line
Our take
Pick Mistral Small 3 if you need: tiny cost, open weights.
Pick Qwen 3 Max if you need: multilingual leader, strong coding.
At a 500M-input / 150M-output monthly volume, Mistral Small 3 costs roughly $190 vs Qwen 3 Max at $1200. Use our calculator to plug in your own numbers.
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