Qwen Plus vs Mixtral 8x7B vs Sonar
Qwen Plus comes out ahead, 53 to 36 and 30 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Plus
53/100- ECI—
- Price$0.40 / $1.20
- Context1M
Mistral AIMixtral 8x7B
36/100- ECI118.5
- Price$0.70 / $0.70
- Context32K
PerplexitySonar
30/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context128K
Qwen Plus is our pick
Qwen Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Mixtral 8x7B (36) and Sonar (30). 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 priceQwen PlusQwen Plus $0.60 · Mixtral 8x7B $0.70 · Sonar $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen PlusQwen Plus 1,000,000 · Sonar 128,000 · Mixtral 8x7B 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsQwen Plus: Text · Mixtral 8x7B: Text · Sonar: Text
- Self-hostingMixtral 8x7BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen Plus | Mixtral 8x7B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 60 | 57 | 50 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 25 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 0 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 36/100 | 30/100 |
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 | Qwen PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | Mixtral 8x7BMistral AI | SonarPerplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 118.5 | — |
| ECI rank | — | #142 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 30.6% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 (best) | $0.70 | $1.00 |
| Output | $1.20 | $0.70 (best) | $1.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.60 (best) | $0.70 | $1.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Mistral API | Official Perplexity API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen-plus | open-mixtral-8x7b | sonar |
| API providers | 9 (best) | 1 | 6 |
| Released | Jan 25, 2024 | Dec 11, 2023 | Jan 1, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Jan 2024 | Sep 1, 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen Plus$6.40
- Mixtral 8x7B$8.40
- Sonar$12.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen Plus, Mixtral 8x7B or Sonar?
Qwen Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Mixtral 8x7B (36) and Sonar (30). 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, Qwen Plus, Mixtral 8x7B or Sonar?
Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Mixtral 8x7B costs $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Sonar costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.60 per million tokens for Qwen Plus versus $0.70 for Mixtral 8x7B (1.2× as much) and $1.00 for Sonar (1.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen Plus has not been scored yet, Mixtral 8x7B has an ECI of 118.5 and Sonar has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Plus, Mixtral 8x7B and Sonar yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Sonar does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Sonar and 32,000 for Mixtral 8x7B. Maximum output per response: Qwen Plus up to 32,768, Mixtral 8x7B up to 32,000, Sonar up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen Plus accepts text; Mixtral 8x7B accepts text; Sonar 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; Qwen Plus and Sonar is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen Plus is the newest, released Jan 25, 2024. Sonar came out Jan 1, 2024; Mixtral 8x7B came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Plus Apr 2024, Mixtral 8x7B Jan 2024, Sonar Sep 1, 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.
