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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3.1 vs Qwen3 Coder Flash

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

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3.1

    Released Aug 12, 2025

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

    Qwen3 Coder Flash

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $1.50
    • Context1M
  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (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 Medium 3.1 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3 Coder Flash 1,000,000 · Mistral Medium 3.1 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3.1Mistral Medium 3.1: Text, Images · Qwen3 Coder Flash: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3.1Qwen3 Coder Flash
Price50%5460
Inputs & features30%5025
Context window20%3760
Overall100%50/10050/100

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 Medium 3.1 vs Qwen3 Coder Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3.1Mistral AIQwen3 Coder FlashAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.30 (best)
Output$2.00$1.50 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.60 (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)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDmistral-medium-2508qwen3-coder-flash
API providers110 (best)
ReleasedAug 12, 2025Jul 28, 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 Flash$6.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (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 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 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 $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3.1 (1.3× 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 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 Qwen3 Coder 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?

Qwen3 Coder 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, Qwen3 Coder Flash up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts text and images; 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 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. Qwen3 Coder Flash came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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.