ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Qwen3 8B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 8B 56, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55, DeepSeek V3 0324 54). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek V3 0324

    Released Mar 24, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI135.9
    • Price$0.24 / $0.90
    • Context164K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek V3 0324

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3 8B 56/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, DeepSeek V3 0324 54/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 8B for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price and DeepSeek V3 0324 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · DeepSeek V3 0324 135.9 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Qwen3 8B $0.31 · DeepSeek V3 0324 $0.405 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextDeepSeek V3 0324DeepSeek V3 0324 163,840 · Qwen3 8B 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.1 24BDeepSeek V3 0324: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Qwen3 8B: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek V3 0324Mistral Small 3.1 24BQwen3 8B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%605061
Price25%687674
Inputs & features15%256035
Context window10%282424
Overall100%54/10055/10056/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Qwen3 8B specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek V3 0324DeepSeekMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)135.9127.5136.2 (best)
ECI rank#114 of 148#132 of 148#113 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions67.6% (best)47.5%56.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics37.8%5.8%56.1% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.24$0.229$0.18 (best)
Output$0.90$0.436 (best)$0.70
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.405$0.281 (best)$0.31
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 5 providersMedian of 2 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window163,840 tokens (best)128,000 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output163,840 tokens (best)16,384 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID——qwen3-8b
API providers5 (best)21
ReleasedMar 24, 2025Mar 17, 2025Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jun 2024Apr 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 V3 0324$4.20
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
  • Qwen3 8B$3.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek V3 0324, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Qwen3 8B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3 8B 56/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, DeepSeek V3 0324 54/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 8B for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price and DeepSeek V3 0324 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 0324, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Qwen3 8B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen3 8B costs $0.18 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); DeepSeek V3 0324 costs $0.24 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $0.31 for Qwen3 8B (1.1× as much) and $0.405 for DeepSeek V3 0324 (1.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148), DeepSeek V3 0324 135.9 (#114 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.7–138.1 vs 132.4–138.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek V3 0324 67.6%, Qwen3 8B 56.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, DeepSeek V3 0324 37.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek V3 0324, Mistral Small 3.1 24B and Qwen3 8B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 8B 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?

DeepSeek V3 0324 has the largest context window at 163,840 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 8B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek V3 0324 up to 163,840, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, Qwen3 8B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek V3 0324 accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; Qwen3 8B accepts text. Mistral Small 3.1 24B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 8B is the newest, released Apr 28, 2025. DeepSeek V3 0324 came out Mar 24, 2025; Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, Qwen3 8B 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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