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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Large 3 vs Mistral Medium 3.1 vs Qwen3 Coder Flash

Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Large 3 50, Qwen3 Coder Flash 50, Mistral Medium 3.1 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 3

    Released Dec 2, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context262K
  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3.1

    Released Aug 12, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context262K
  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Coder Flash

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $1.50
    • Context1M
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mistral Large 3 50/100, Qwen3 Coder Flash 50/100, Mistral Medium 3.1 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Coder Flash on price and Qwen3 Coder Flash for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3 Coder Flash $0.60 · Mistral Large 3 $0.75 · Mistral Medium 3.1 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3 Coder Flash 1,000,000 · Mistral Large 3 262,144 · Mistral Medium 3.1 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Large 3 and Mistral Medium 3.1Mistral Large 3: Text, Images · Mistral Medium 3.1: Text, Images · Qwen3 Coder Flash: Text
  • Self-hostingMistral Large 3Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Large 3Mistral Medium 3.1Qwen3 Coder Flash
Price50%565460
Inputs & features30%505025
Context window20%373760
Overall100%50/10050/10050/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Large 3 vs Mistral Medium 3.1 vs Qwen3 Coder Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Large 3Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.1Mistral AIQwen3 Coder FlashAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.40$0.30 (best)
Output$1.50 (best)$2.00$1.50 (best)
Cached input$0.05——
Blended (3:1)$0.75$0.80$0.60 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output262,144 tokens (best)262,144 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryProprietary
API model IDmistral-large-2512mistral-medium-2508qwen3-coder-flash
API providers13 (best)110
ReleasedDec 2, 2025Aug 12, 2025Jul 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffNov 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.

  • Mistral Large 3$8.00
  • Mistral Medium 3.1$8.00
  • Qwen3 Coder Flash$6.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Large 3, Mistral Medium 3.1 or Qwen3 Coder Flash?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mistral Large 3 50/100, Qwen3 Coder Flash 50/100, Mistral Medium 3.1 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Coder Flash on price and Qwen3 Coder Flash for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 3, Mistral Medium 3.1 or Qwen3 Coder Flash?

Qwen3 Coder Flash is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Mistral Large 3 costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Mistral Medium 3.1 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.60 per million tokens for Qwen3 Coder Flash versus $0.75 for Mistral Large 3 (1.3× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3.1 (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mistral Large 3 has not been scored yet, Mistral Medium 3.1 has not been scored yet and Qwen3 Coder Flash has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Large 3, Mistral Medium 3.1 and Qwen3 Coder Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Coder Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Mistral Large 3 and 262,144 for Mistral Medium 3.1. Maximum output per response: Mistral Large 3 up to 262,144, Mistral Medium 3.1 up to 262,144, Qwen3 Coder Flash up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Large 3 accepts text and images; Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts text and images; Qwen3 Coder Flash accepts text. Mistral Large 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Large 3 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3.1 and Qwen3 Coder Flash is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Large 3 is the newest, released Dec 2, 2025. Mistral Medium 3.1 came out Aug 12, 2025; Qwen3 Coder Flash came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Large 3 Nov 2024, Mistral Medium 3.1 May 2025, Qwen3 Coder Flash 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.