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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3.1 vs Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

Mistral Medium 3.1 comes out ahead, 50 to 41 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

    Released Apr 2025

    41/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.45 / $2.25
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Mistral Medium 3.1 is our pick

Mistral Medium 3.1 is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (41). It leads on price and 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 priceMistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1 $0.80 · Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct $0.90 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameMistral Medium 3.1 262,144 · Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1: Text, Images · Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3.1Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct
Price50%5452
Inputs & features30%5025
Context window20%3737
Overall100%50/10041/100

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 Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3.1Mistral AIQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$0.45
Output$2.00 (best)$2.25
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80 (best)$0.90
Long-context rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.75 / $3.75
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDmistral-medium-2508qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct
API providers113 (best)
ReleasedAug 12, 2025Apr 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 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 Medium 3.1$8.00
  • Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct$9.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3.1 or Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct?

Mistral Medium 3.1 is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (41). It leads on price and 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 Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct?

Mistral Medium 3.1 is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct costs $0.45 input / $2.25 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.80 per million tokens for Mistral Medium 3.1 versus $0.90 for Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (1.1× 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 Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3.1 and Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 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?

Mistral Medium 3.1 and Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3.1 up to 262,144, Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts text and images; Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct accepts text. Mistral Medium 3.1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3.1 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3.1 is the newest, released Aug 12, 2025. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3.1 May 2025, Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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