DeepSeek-R1 vs Mistral Medium 3 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Medium 3 53, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51, DeepSeek-R1 51). The right pick depends on what you value most.
DeepSeekDeepSeek-R1
51/100- ECI139.0
- Price$0.70 / $2.60
- Context128K
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B
51/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.70 / $2.80
- Context131K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 235B-A22B for raw capability and Mistral Medium 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
- Lowest priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Qwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMistral Medium 3 and Qwen3 235B-A22BMistral Medium 3 131,072 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Medium 3DeepSeek-R1: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek-R1 | Mistral Medium 3 | Qwen3 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 64 | 58 | 65 |
| Price | 25% | 47 | 54 | 46 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 50 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 53/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | DeepSeek-R1DeepSeek | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI | Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 139.0 | 134.1 | 139.4 (best) |
| ECI rank | #104 of 148 | #117 of 148 | #103 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 71.7% (best) | 59.5% | 70.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 53.3% (best) | 32.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.70 | $0.40 (best) | $0.70 |
| Output | $2.60 | $2.00 (best) | $2.80 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.18 | $0.80 (best) | $1.23 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 11 providers | Official Mistral API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | mistral-medium-2505 | qwen3-235b-a22b |
| API providers | 12 (best) | 5 | 7 |
| Released | Jan 20, 2025 | May 7, 2025 | Apr 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jul 2024 | May 2025 | Apr 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- DeepSeek-R1$12.20
- Mistral Medium 3$8.00
- Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek-R1, Mistral Medium 3 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 235B-A22B for raw capability and Mistral Medium 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1, Mistral Medium 3 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?
Mistral Medium 3 is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). DeepSeek-R1 costs $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers); Qwen3 235B-A22B costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.80 per million tokens for Mistral Medium 3 versus $1.18 for DeepSeek-R1 (1.5× as much) and $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3 235B-A22B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148), DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.2–140.8 vs 136.2–140.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek-R1 71.7%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-R1, Mistral Medium 3 and Qwen3 235B-A22B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Mistral Medium 3 and Qwen3 235B-A22B have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
DeepSeek-R1 accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 235B-A22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: DeepSeek-R1 Jul 2024, Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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