Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8 Flash vs Hy3 preview
Qwen3.8 Flash comes out ahead, 76 to 64 and 56 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AIMistral Small 4
64/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context256K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Flash
76/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.47
- Context1M
TencentHy3 preview
56/100- ECI—
- Price$0.176 / $0.586
- Context256K
Qwen3.8 Flash is our pick
Qwen3.8 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 76/100 against Mistral Small 4 (64) and Hy3 preview (56). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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 priceQwen3.8 FlashQwen3.8 Flash $0.23 · Mistral Small 4 $0.263 · Hy3 preview $0.279 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.8 FlashQwen3.8 Flash 1,000,000 · Mistral Small 4 256,000 · Hy3 preview 256,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 FlashMistral Small 4: Text, Images · Qwen3.8 Flash: Text, Images, Video · Hy3 preview: Text
- Self-hostingMistral Small 4 and Hy3 previewPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.8 Flash | Hy3 preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 77 | 80 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 60 | 80 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 60 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 76/100 | 56/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Small 4Mistral AI | Qwen3.8 FlashAlibaba (Qwen) | Hy3 previewTencent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 (best) | $0.15 (best) | $0.176 |
| Output | $0.60 | $0.47 (best) | $0.586 |
| Cached input | $0.015 (best) | $0.016 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.263 | $0.23 (best) | $0.279 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official Alibaba API | Median of 4 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens |
| Max output | 256,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeshigh | Yeslow · medium · xhigh | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | mistral-small-2603 | qwen3.8-flash | hy3-preview |
| API providers | 16 | 23 (best) | 5 |
| Released | Mar 16, 2026 | Aug 26, 2026 | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 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 Small 4$2.70
- Qwen3.8 Flash$2.44
- Hy3 preview$2.93
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Small 4, Qwen3.8 Flash or Hy3 preview?
Qwen3.8 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 76/100 against Mistral Small 4 (64) and Hy3 preview (56). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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 Small 4, Qwen3.8 Flash or Hy3 preview?
Qwen3.8 Flash is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.47 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Hy3 preview costs $0.176 input / $0.586 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers; free on Tencent TokenHub). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.23 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Flash versus $0.263 for Mistral Small 4 (1.1× as much) and $0.279 for Hy3 preview (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mistral Small 4 has not been scored yet, Qwen3.8 Flash has not been scored yet and Hy3 preview has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 4, Qwen3.8 Flash and Hy3 preview 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?
Qwen3.8 Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 256,000 for Mistral Small 4 and 256,000 for Hy3 preview. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 4 up to 256,000, Qwen3.8 Flash up to 131,072, Hy3 preview up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Small 4 accepts text and images; Qwen3.8 Flash accepts text, images and video; Hy3 preview accepts text. Qwen3.8 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral Small 4 and Hy3 preview publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.8 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 Flash is the newest, released Aug 26, 2026. Hy3 preview came out Apr 20, 2026; Mistral Small 4 came out Mar 16, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 4 Jun 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.
