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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3.1 vs Qwen Flash

Qwen Flash comes out ahead, 68 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3.1

    Released Aug 12, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3.1
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Flash

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    68/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.40
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen Flash

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen Flash is our pick

Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Mistral Medium 3.1 (50). It leads on price and context window. 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 · Mistral Medium 3.1 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen FlashQwen Flash 1,000,000 · Mistral Medium 3.1 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1: Text, Images · Qwen Flash: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3.1Qwen Flash
Price50%5491
Inputs & features30%5035
Context window20%3760
Overall100%50/10068/100

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 Medium 3.1 vs Qwen Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3.1Mistral AIQwen FlashAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.05 (best)
Output$2.00$0.40 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.138 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output262,144 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDmistral-medium-2508qwen-flash
API providers16 (best)
ReleasedAug 12, 2025Jul 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Apr 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.

  • Mistral Medium 3.1$8.00
  • Qwen Flash$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3.1 or Qwen Flash?

Qwen Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Mistral Medium 3.1 (50). It leads on price and context window. 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 or Qwen Flash?

Qwen Flash is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.40 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 $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3.1 (5.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Mistral Medium 3.1 has not been scored yet and Qwen Flash has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

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

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen Flash has the largest context window at 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 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts text and images; Qwen Flash accepts text. Mistral Medium 3.1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Mistral Medium 3.1 and Qwen 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. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3.1 May 2025, Qwen Flash 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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