ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct

Mistral Medium 3.5 comes out ahead, 42 to 39 and 31 on our weighted score, though Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct is 3.4× cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3.5

    Released Apr 29, 2026

    42/100
    • ECI141.4
    • Price$1.50 / $7.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3.5

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    31/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct

    Released Sep 2025

    39/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Mistral Medium 3.5 is our pick

Mistral Medium 3.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 42/100 against Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct (39) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct wins on price. 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-Next 80B-A3B InstructQwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct $0.875 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 · Mistral Medium 3.5 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3 MaxMistral Medium 3.5 262,144 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3.5Mistral Medium 3.5: Text, Images · Qwen3 Max: Text · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingMistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3.5Qwen3 MaxQwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct
Price50%273253
Inputs & features30%702525
Context window20%373724
Overall100%42/10031/10039/100

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 3.5 vs Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AIQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)141.4142.4 (best)—
ECI rank#95 of 148#91 of 148 (best)—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—72.6%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—73.3%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.50$1.20$0.50 (best)
Output$7.50$6.00$2.00 (best)
Cached input$0.15——
Blended (3:1)$3.00$2.40$0.875 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens (best)65,536 tokens32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYeshighNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDmistral-medium-2604qwen3-maxqwen3-next-80b-a3b-instruct
API providers1216 (best)13
ReleasedApr 29, 2026Sep 23, 2025Sep 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 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 3.5$30.00
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct$9.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3.5, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct?

Mistral Medium 3.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 42/100 against Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct (39) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct wins on price. 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 3.5, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct?

Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct is cheaper at $0.50 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3 Max costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.875 per million tokens for Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (2.7× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Medium 3.5 (3.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mistral Medium 3.5 has an ECI of 141.4, Qwen3 Max has an ECI of 142.4 and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3.5, Qwen3 Max and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct 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?

Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3 Max have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 131,072 for Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3.5 up to 262,144, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3.5 accepts text and images; Qwen3 Max accepts text; Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct accepts text. Mistral Medium 3.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; 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; Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct came out Sep 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Qwen3-Next 80B-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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