Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Mistral Medium 3 vs DeepSeek-R1
Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Medium 3 53, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51, DeepSeek-R1 51). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B
51/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.70 / $2.80
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
DeepSeekDeepSeek-R1
51/100- ECI139.0
- Price$0.70 / $2.60
- Context128K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 235B-A22B for raw capability and Mistral Medium 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
- Lowest priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Qwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 235B-A22B and Mistral Medium 3Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images · DeepSeek-R1: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 235B-A22B | Mistral Medium 3 | DeepSeek-R1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 65 | 58 | 64 |
| Price | 25% | 46 | 54 | 47 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 50 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 53/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen) | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI | DeepSeek-R1DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 139.4 (best) | 134.1 | 139.0 |
| ECI rank | #103 of 148 (best) | #117 of 148 | #104 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 70.7% | 59.5% | 71.7% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 32.2% | 53.3% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.70 | $0.40 (best) | $0.70 |
| Output | $2.80 | $2.00 (best) | $2.60 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.23 | $0.80 (best) | $1.18 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Mistral API | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwen3-235b-a22b | mistral-medium-2505 | — |
| API providers | 7 | 5 | 12 (best) |
| Released | Apr 28, 2025 | May 7, 2025 | Jan 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | May 2025 | Jul 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
- Mistral Medium 3$8.00
- DeepSeek-R1$12.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 235B-A22B, Mistral Medium 3 or DeepSeek-R1?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 235B-A22B for raw capability and Mistral Medium 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 235B-A22B, Mistral Medium 3 or DeepSeek-R1?
Mistral Medium 3 is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). DeepSeek-R1 costs $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers); Qwen3 235B-A22B costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.80 per million tokens for Mistral Medium 3 versus $1.18 for DeepSeek-R1 (1.5× as much) and $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3 235B-A22B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148), DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.2–140.8 vs 136.2–140.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek-R1 71.7%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B, Mistral Medium 3 and DeepSeek-R1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B 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 235B-A22B and Mistral Medium 3 have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; DeepSeek-R1 accepts text. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, DeepSeek-R1 Jul 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.
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