ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.2 vs Qwen3 8B

Mistral Small 3.2 comes out ahead, 60 to 56 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Mistral Small 3.2 is our pick

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Qwen3 8B (56). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 8B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Qwen3 8B $0.31 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 8BQwen3 8B 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · Qwen3 8B: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.2Qwen3 8B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5561
Price25%8974
Inputs & features15%5035
Context window10%2424
Overall100%60/10056/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Small 3.2 vs Qwen3 8B specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.2Mistral AIQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)131.7136.2 (best)
ECI rank#123 of 148#113 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions49.1%56.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics30.3%56.1% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.18
Output$0.30 (best)$0.70
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.15 (best)$0.31
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDmistral-small-2506qwen3-8b
API providers6 (best)1
ReleasedJun 20, 2025Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMar 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 Small 3.2$1.60
  • Qwen3 8B$3.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Small 3.2 or Qwen3 8B?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Qwen3 8B (56). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 8B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.2 or Qwen3 8B?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen3 8B costs $0.18 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.31 for Qwen3 8B (2.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.7–138.1 vs 126.6–133.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 8B 56.8%, Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, Mistral Small 3.2 30.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3.2 and Qwen3 8B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 8B 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?

Qwen3 8B has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, Qwen3 8B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images; Qwen3 8B accepts text. Mistral Small 3.2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Qwen3 8B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, Qwen3 8B 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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