Mistral Medium 3.1 vs Qwen Flash vs Qwen3 Coder Flash
Qwen Flash comes out ahead, 68 to 50 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.1
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context262K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Flash
68/100- ECI—
- Price$0.05 / $0.40
- Context1M
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3 Coder Flash
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $1.50
- Context1M
Qwen Flash is our pick
Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Qwen3 Coder Flash (50) and Mistral Medium 3.1 (50). It leads on price. Mistral Medium 3.1 wins on inputs & features. 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 priceQwen FlashQwen Flash $0.138 · Qwen3 Coder Flash $0.60 · Mistral Medium 3.1 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen Flash and Qwen3 Coder FlashQwen Flash 1,000,000 · Qwen3 Coder Flash 1,000,000 · Mistral Medium 3.1 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1: Text, Images · Qwen Flash: Text · Qwen3 Coder Flash: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Medium 3.1 | Qwen Flash | Qwen3 Coder Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 54 | 91 | 60 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 50 | 35 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 60 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 68/100 | 50/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Medium 3.1Mistral AI | Qwen FlashAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3 Coder FlashAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 | $0.05 (best) | $0.30 |
| Output | $2.00 | $0.40 (best) | $1.50 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.80 | $0.138 (best) | $0.60 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-medium-2508 | qwen-flash | qwen3-coder-flash |
| API providers | 1 | 6 | 10 (best) |
| Released | Aug 12, 2025 | Jul 28, 2025 | Jul 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2025 | Apr 2024 | Apr 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Mistral Medium 3.1$8.00
- Qwen Flash$1.30
- Qwen3 Coder Flash$6.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Medium 3.1, Qwen Flash or Qwen3 Coder Flash?
Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Qwen3 Coder Flash (50) and Mistral Medium 3.1 (50). It leads on price. Mistral Medium 3.1 wins on inputs & features. 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 Medium 3.1, Qwen Flash or Qwen3 Coder Flash?
Qwen Flash is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3 Coder Flash costs $0.30 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $0.138 per million tokens for Qwen Flash versus $0.60 for Qwen3 Coder Flash (4.4× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3.1 (5.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mistral Medium 3.1 has not been scored yet, Qwen Flash 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 Medium 3.1, Qwen Flash 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?
Qwen Flash and Qwen3 Coder Flash have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 262,144 for Mistral Medium 3.1. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3.1 up to 262,144, Qwen Flash up to 32,768, Qwen3 Coder Flash up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts text and images; Qwen Flash accepts text; Qwen3 Coder Flash accepts text. Mistral Medium 3.1 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Mistral Medium 3.1, Qwen Flash and Qwen3 Coder Flash are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3.1 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2025. Qwen Flash came out Jul 28, 2025; Qwen3 Coder Flash came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3.1 May 2025, Qwen Flash Apr 2024, 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.
