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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 14B vs Mistral Medium 3 vs DeepSeek-V3.1

Too close to call on our weighted score (DeepSeek-V3.1 55, Qwen3 14B 54, Mistral Medium 3 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 14B

    Released Apr 29, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI138.2
    • Price$0.35 / $1.40
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 14B

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3

    Released May 7, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI134.1
    • Price$0.40 / $2.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Medium 3

  3. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3.1

    Released Aug 21, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI139.9
    • Price$0.385 / $1.25
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3.1
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (DeepSeek-V3.1 55/100, Qwen3 14B 54/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3.1 for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityDeepSeek-V3.1Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 · Qwen3 14B 138.2 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek-V3.1 $0.601 · Qwen3 14B $0.613 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3 14B 131,072 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 · DeepSeek-V3.1 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Qwen3 14B: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · DeepSeek-V3.1: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 14B and DeepSeek-V3.1Publishes downloadable weights (MIT License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 14BMistral Medium 3DeepSeek-V3.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%635865
Price25%605460
Inputs & features15%355035
Context window10%242424
Overall100%54/10053/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 14B vs Mistral Medium 3 vs DeepSeek-V3.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 14BAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Medium 3Mistral AIDeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)138.2134.1139.9 (best)
ECI rank#107 of 148#117 of 148#100 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions63.8% (best)59.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.4% (best)32.2%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.35 (best)$0.40$0.385
Output$1.40$2.00$1.25 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.613$0.80$0.601 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 8 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpenMIT License
API model IDqwen3-14bmistral-medium-2505—
API providers158 (best)
ReleasedApr 29, 2025May 7, 2025Aug 21, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025May 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.

  • Qwen3 14B$6.30
  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
  • DeepSeek-V3.1$6.35
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 14B, Mistral Medium 3 or DeepSeek-V3.1?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (DeepSeek-V3.1 55/100, Qwen3 14B 54/100, Mistral Medium 3 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3.1 for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 14B, Mistral Medium 3 or DeepSeek-V3.1?

DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper at $0.385 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers). Qwen3 14B costs $0.35 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.601 per million tokens for DeepSeek-V3.1 versus $0.613 for Qwen3 14B (1× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 (#100 of 148), Qwen3 14B 138.2 (#107 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (136.1–143.3 vs 133.5–140.1), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 14B, Mistral Medium 3 and DeepSeek-V3.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek-V3.1 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 14B, Mistral Medium 3 and DeepSeek-V3.1 share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 14B up to 8,192, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, DeepSeek-V3.1 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 14B accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; DeepSeek-V3.1 accepts text. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 14B and DeepSeek-V3.1 publishes its weights (MIT License) and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

DeepSeek-V3.1 is the newest, released Aug 21, 2025. Mistral Medium 3 came out May 7, 2025; Qwen3 14B came out Apr 29, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 14B Apr 2025, Mistral Medium 3 May 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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