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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mixtral 8x7B vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3 Max comes out ahead, 50 to 37 on our weighted score, though Mixtral 8x7B is 3.4× cheaper per token.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mixtral 8x7B

    Released Dec 11, 2023

    37/100
    • ECI118.5
    • Price$0.70 / $0.70
    • Context32K
    Full specs Remove Mixtral 8x7B
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3 Max is our pick

Qwen3 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Mixtral 8x7B (37). It leads on capability and context window. Mixtral 8x7B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Mixtral 8x7B 118.5
  • Lowest priceMixtral 8x7BMixtral 8x7B $0.70 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Mixtral 8x7B 32,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsMixtral 8x7B: Text · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingMixtral 8x7BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMixtral 8x7BQwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%3868
Price25%5732
Inputs & features15%2525
Context window10%037
Overall100%37/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mixtral 8x7B vs Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationMixtral 8x7BMistral AIQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)118.5142.4 (best)
ECI rank#142 of 148#91 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions30.6%72.6% (best)
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$0.70 (best)$1.20
Output$0.70 (best)$6.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.70 (best)$2.40
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window32,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output32,000 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDopen-mixtral-8x7bqwen3-max
API providers116 (best)
ReleasedDec 11, 2023Sep 23, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2024Apr 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.

  • Mixtral 8x7B$8.40
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mixtral 8x7B or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Mixtral 8x7B (37). It leads on capability and context window. Mixtral 8x7B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mixtral 8x7B or Qwen3 Max?

Mixtral 8x7B is cheaper at $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.70 per million tokens for Mixtral 8x7B versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (3.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and Mixtral 8x7B 118.5 (#142 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 111.3–121.3), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Mixtral 8x7B 30.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mixtral 8x7B and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 Max 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 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 32,000 for Mixtral 8x7B. Maximum output per response: Mixtral 8x7B up to 32,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mixtral 8x7B accepts text; Qwen3 Max accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Mixtral 8x7B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Mixtral 8x7B came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: Mixtral 8x7B Jan 2024, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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