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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-R1 vs Mistral Medium 3 vs Qwen3 32B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Medium 3 53, DeepSeek-R1 51, Qwen3 32B 51). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-R1

    Released Jan 20, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.0
    • Price$0.70 / $2.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-R1

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3

    Released May 7, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI134.1
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 32B

    Released Apr 29, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI138.5
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 32B
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100, Qwen3 32B 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-R1 for raw capability and Mistral Medium 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityDeepSeek-R1Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-R1 139.0 · Qwen3 32B 138.5 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Qwen3 32B $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMistral Medium 3 and Qwen3 32BMistral Medium 3 131,072 · Qwen3 32B 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3DeepSeek-R1: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Qwen3 32B: Text
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 32BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-R1Mistral Medium 3Qwen3 32B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%645864
Price25%475446
Inputs & features15%355035
Context window10%242424
Overall100%51/10053/10051/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

DeepSeek-R1 vs Mistral Medium 3 vs Qwen3 32B specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-R1DeepSeekMistral Medium 3Mistral AIQwen3 32BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.0 (best)134.1138.5
ECI rank#104 of 148 (best)#117 of 148#106 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.7% (best)59.5%65.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics53.3%32.2%66.9% (best)
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 rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)131,072 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens131,072 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model ID—mistral-medium-2505qwen3-32b
API providers12514 (best)
ReleasedJan 20, 2025May 7, 2025Apr 29, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJul 2024May 2025Apr 2025
03 — Cost

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 32B$12.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-R1, Mistral Medium 3 or Qwen3 32B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100, Qwen3 32B 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-R1 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 32B?

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 32B 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 32B (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

DeepSeek-R1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148), Qwen3 32B 138.5 (#106 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (136.2–140.4 vs 135.1–140.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek-R1 71.7%, Qwen3 32B 65.7%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 32B 66.9%, DeepSeek-R1 53.3%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-R1, Mistral Medium 3 and Qwen3 32B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek-R1 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 32B 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 32B 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 32B accepts text. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3 32B 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 32B came out Apr 29, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: DeepSeek-R1 Jul 2024, Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Qwen3 32B 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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