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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Magistral Small vs Qwen3 30B A3B

Qwen3 30B A3B comes out ahead, 57 to 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Magistral Small

    Released Jun 10, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI133.1
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Magistral Small
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 30B A3B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    57/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.108 / $0.475
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 30B A3B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3 30B A3B is our pick

Qwen3 30B A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Magistral Small (49). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 30B A3BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · Magistral Small 133.1
  • Lowest priceQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 30B A3B $0.20 · Magistral Small $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameMagistral Small 131,072 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsMagistral Small: Text · Qwen3 30B A3B: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMagistral SmallQwen3 30B A3B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5659
Price25%5380
Inputs & features15%3535
Context window10%2525
Overall100%49/10057/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Magistral Small vs Qwen3 30B A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationMagistral SmallMistral AIQwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.1136.2 (best)
ECI rank#134 of 165#126 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.1%61.7% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics30.0%62.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.108 (best)
Output$1.50$0.475 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.75$0.20 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 14 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenApache 2.0Open
API model ID——
API providers214 (best)
ReleasedJun 10, 2025Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoff——
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.

  • Magistral Small$8.00
  • Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Magistral Small or Qwen3 30B A3B?

Qwen3 30B A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Magistral Small (49). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Magistral Small or Qwen3 30B A3B?

Qwen3 30B A3B is cheaper at $0.108 input / $0.475 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). Magistral Small costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.20 per million tokens for Qwen3 30B A3B versus $0.75 for Magistral Small (3.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 30B A3B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 (#126 of 165) and Magistral Small 133.1 (#134 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.8–138.5 vs 129.4–134.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 30B A3B 61.7%, Magistral Small 56.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 30B A3B 62.8%, Magistral Small 30.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Magistral Small and Qwen3 30B A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 30B A3B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Magistral Small and Qwen3 30B A3B share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: Magistral Small up to 8,192, Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Magistral Small accepts text; Qwen3 30B A3B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights (Apache 2.0), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Magistral Small is the newest, released Jun 10, 2025. Qwen3 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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