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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Ministral 3B vs Qwen Turbo

Qwen Turbo comes out ahead, 57 to 43 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Ministral 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    43/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Turbo

    Released Nov 1, 2024

    57/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.20
    • Context1M
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01 — Verdict

Qwen Turbo is our pick

Qwen Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Ministral 3B (43). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityQwen TurboShared benchmarks: Qwen Turbo 41.8% · Ministral 3B 25.3%
  • Lowest priceQwen TurboQwen Turbo $0.087 · Ministral 3B $0.10 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen TurboQwen Turbo 1,000,000 · Ministral 3B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsMinistral 3B: Text · Qwen Turbo: Text
  • Self-hostingMinistral 3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMinistral 3BQwen Turbo
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%2542
Price25%97100
Inputs & features15%2535
Context window10%2460
Overall100%43/10057/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Ministral 3B vs Qwen Turbo specifications side by side
SpecificationMinistral 3BMistral AIQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)118.1—
ECI rank#144 of 148—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions25.3%41.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—6.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.05 (best)
Output$0.10 (best)$0.20
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.10$0.087 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—qwen-turbo
API providers13 (best)
ReleasedOct 16, 2024Nov 1, 2024
Knowledge cutoffMar 2024Apr 2024
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.

  • Ministral 3B$1.20
  • Qwen Turbo$0.90
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Ministral 3B or Qwen Turbo?

Qwen Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Ministral 3B (43). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Ministral 3B or Qwen Turbo?

Qwen Turbo is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Ministral 3B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.087 per million tokens for Qwen Turbo versus $0.10 for Ministral 3B (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Qwen Turbo 41.8% and Ministral 3B 25.3%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen Turbo 41.8%, Ministral 3B 25.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 3B and Qwen Turbo yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen Turbo 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?

Qwen Turbo has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Ministral 3B. Maximum output per response: Ministral 3B up to 8,192, Qwen Turbo up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Ministral 3B accepts text; Qwen Turbo accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Ministral 3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen Turbo is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen Turbo is the newest, released Nov 1, 2024. Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Ministral 3B Mar 2024, Qwen Turbo Apr 2024.

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.