ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen Turbo vs Ministral 3B

Qwen Turbo comes out ahead, 57 to 43 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Turbo

    Released Nov 1, 2024

    57/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.20
    • Context1M
  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    43/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
  3. Add a model

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01 — Verdict

Qwen Turbo is our pick

Qwen Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Ministral 3B (43). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityQwen TurboShared benchmarks: Qwen Turbo 41.8% · Ministral 3B 25.3%
  • Lowest priceQwen TurboQwen Turbo $0.087 · Ministral 3B $0.10 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen TurboQwen Turbo 1,000,000 · Ministral 3B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen Turbo: Text · Ministral 3B: Text
  • Self-hostingMinistral 3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen TurboMinistral 3B
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%4225
Price25%10097
Inputs & features15%3525
Context window10%6024
Overall100%57/10043/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen Turbo vs Ministral 3B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)Ministral 3BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—118.1
ECI rank—#144 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions41.8% (best)25.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics6.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.10
Output$0.20$0.10 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.087 (best)$0.10
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen-turbo—
API providers3 (best)1
ReleasedNov 1, 2024Oct 16, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Mar 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.

  • Qwen Turbo$0.90
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen Turbo or Ministral 3B?

Qwen Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Ministral 3B (43). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Qwen Turbo or Ministral 3B?

Qwen Turbo is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Ministral 3B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.087 per million tokens for Qwen Turbo versus $0.10 for Ministral 3B (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Qwen Turbo 41.8% and Ministral 3B 25.3%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen Turbo 41.8%, Ministral 3B 25.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Turbo and Ministral 3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen Turbo 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?

Qwen Turbo has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Ministral 3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, Ministral 3B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen Turbo accepts text; Ministral 3B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Ministral 3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen Turbo is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen Turbo is the newest, released Nov 1, 2024. Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Turbo Apr 2024, Ministral 3B Mar 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.