ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Medium 3 vs QwQ 32B

Too close to call on our weighted score (QwQ 32B 53, Mistral Medium 3 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3

    Released May 7, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI134.1
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    QwQ 32B

    Released Mar 5, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI137.6
    • Price$0.66 / $1.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove QwQ 32B

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (QwQ 32B 53/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: QwQ 32B for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwQ 32BCapabilities Index (ECI): QwQ 32B 137.6 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceQwQ 32BQwQ 32B $0.745 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameMistral Medium 3 131,072 · QwQ 32B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · QwQ 32B: Text
  • Self-hostingQwQ 32BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Medium 3QwQ 32B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5862
Price25%5456
Inputs & features15%5035
Context window10%2424
Overall100%53/10053/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Mistral Medium 3 vs QwQ 32B specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Medium 3Mistral AIQwQ 32BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.1137.6 (best)
ECI rank#117 of 148#109 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions59.5%65.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics32.2%59.2% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$0.66
Output$2.00$1.00 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.80$0.745 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDmistral-medium-2505—
API providers5 (best)1
ReleasedMay 7, 2025Mar 5, 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$8.00
  • QwQ 32B$8.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Medium 3 or QwQ 32B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (QwQ 32B 53/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: QwQ 32B for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or QwQ 32B?

QwQ 32B is cheaper at $0.66 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Mistral Medium 3 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 $0.745 per million tokens for QwQ 32B versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

QwQ 32B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): QwQ 32B 137.6 (#109 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (133.1–141.7 vs 130.5–135.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — QwQ 32B 65.3%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — QwQ 32B 59.2%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3 and QwQ 32B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, QwQ 32B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Medium 3 and QwQ 32B share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, QwQ 32B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; QwQ 32B accepts text. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

QwQ 32B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. QwQ 32B came out Mar 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, QwQ 32B 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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