ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen Turbo vs Mistral Small 3.2

Mistral Small 3.2 comes out ahead, 52 to 48 on our weighted score, though Qwen Turbo is 42% cheaper per token.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Turbo

    Released Nov 1, 2024

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.20
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen Turbo
  2. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    52/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2

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01 — Verdict

Mistral Small 3.2 is our pick

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 52/100 against Qwen Turbo (48). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Qwen Turbo wins on price 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 and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityMistral Small 3.2Shared benchmarks: Mistral Small 3.2 39.7% · Qwen Turbo 24.0%
  • Lowest priceQwen TurboQwen Turbo $0.087 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen TurboQwen Turbo 1,000,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.2Qwen Turbo: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen TurboMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%2440
Price25%10089
Inputs & features15%3550
Context window10%6024
Overall100%48/10052/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen Turbo vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—131.7
ECI rank—#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions41.8%49.1% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics6.1%30.3% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.10
Output$0.20 (best)$0.30
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.087 (best)$0.15
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen-turbomistral-small-2506
API providers36 (best)
ReleasedNov 1, 2024Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Mar 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.

  • Qwen Turbo$0.90
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen Turbo or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 52/100 against Qwen Turbo (48). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Qwen Turbo wins on price 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 and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Qwen Turbo or Mistral Small 3.2?

Qwen Turbo is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Mistral Small 3.2 costs $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.087 per million tokens for Qwen Turbo versus $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1.7× 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 and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025): Mistral Small 3.2 39.7% and Qwen Turbo 24.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%, Qwen Turbo 41.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Small 3.2 30.3%, Qwen Turbo 6.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Turbo and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Small 3.2 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 Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen Turbo accepts text; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.2 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen Turbo is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Turbo Apr 2024, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 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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