Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Qwen3 Max
Gemini 2.5 Pro comes out ahead, 63 to 55 and 50 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 Max is 30% cheaper per token.
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.5
55/100- ECI141.4
- Price$1.50 / $7.50
- Context262K
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Pro
63/100- ECI145.3
- Price$1.25 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Max
50/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
Gemini 2.5 Pro is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Mistral Medium 3.5 (55) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 Max wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 2.5 ProCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Pro 145.3 · Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4
- Lowest priceQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max $2.40 · Mistral Medium 3.5 $3.00 · Gemini 2.5 Pro $3.44 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 ProGemini 2.5 Pro 1,048,576 · Mistral Medium 3.5 262,144 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 ProMistral Medium 3.5: Text, Images · Gemini 2.5 Pro: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 Max: Text
- Self-hostingMistral Medium 3.5Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 67 | 72 | 68 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 24 | 32 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 100 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 61 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 55/100 | 63/100 | 50/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI | Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 141.4 | 145.3 (best) | 142.4 |
| ECI rank | #95 of 148 | #78 of 148 (best) | #91 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 85.3% (best) | 72.6% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 24.6% (best) | 19.0% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 84.7% (best) | 73.3% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 57.6% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | — | 48.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.50 | $1.25 | $1.20 (best) |
| Output | $7.50 | $10.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.15 | $0.125 (best) | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 | $3.44 | $2.40 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 200K: $2.50 / $15.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official Google API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeshigh | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-medium-2604 | gemini-2.5-pro | qwen3-max |
| API providers | 12 | 22 (best) | 16 |
| Released | Apr 29, 2026 | Jun 17, 2025 | Sep 23, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 2025 | 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 3.5$30.00
- Gemini 2.5 Pro$32.50
- Qwen3 Max$24.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Medium 3.5, Gemini 2.5 Pro or Qwen3 Max?
Gemini 2.5 Pro is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Mistral Medium 3.5 (55) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 Max wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3.5, Gemini 2.5 Pro or Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Gemini 2.5 Pro costs $1.25 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.40 per million tokens for Qwen3 Max versus $3.00 for Mistral Medium 3.5 (1.3× as much) and $3.44 for Gemini 2.5 Pro (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 2.5 Pro scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Pro 145.3 (#78 of 148), Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3.5 141.4 (#95 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (143.6–146.9 vs 140.0–144.6), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Pro leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Pro has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Mistral Medium 3.5 and 262,144 for Qwen3 Max. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3.5 up to 262,144, Gemini 2.5 Pro up to 65,536, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts text and images; Gemini 2.5 Pro accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 Max accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Pro handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral Medium 3.5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Pro and Qwen3 Max is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3.5 is the newest, released Apr 29, 2026. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Pro came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Pro Jan 2025, Qwen3 Max 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.
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