Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base vs DeepSeek OCR 2 vs Mistral Large 3
Mistral Large 3 comes out ahead, 52 to 45 and 38 on our weighted score, though DeepSeek OCR 2 is 29% cheaper per token.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base
45/100- ECI—
- Price$0.54 / $1.33
- Context262K
DeepSeekDeepSeek OCR 2
38/100- ECI—
- Price$0.46 / $0.749
- Context8K
- Our pick
Mistral AIMistral Large 3
52/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context262K
Mistral Large 3 is our pick
Mistral Large 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 52/100 against Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base (45) and DeepSeek OCR 2 (38). It leads on inputs & features. DeepSeek OCR 2 wins on price. 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 priceDeepSeek OCR 2DeepSeek OCR 2 $0.532 · Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base $0.739 · Mistral Large 3 $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.5 35B-A3B Base and Mistral Large 3Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base 262,144 · Mistral Large 3 262,144 · DeepSeek OCR 2 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 35B-A3B BaseQwen3.5 35B-A3B Base: Text, Images, Video · DeepSeek OCR 2: Text, Images · Mistral Large 3: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base | DeepSeek OCR 2 | Mistral Large 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 54 | 60 | 53 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 25 | 60 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 0 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 45/100 | 38/100 | 52/100 |
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 | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B BaseAlibaba (Qwen) | DeepSeek OCR 2DeepSeek | Mistral Large 3Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.54 | $0.46 (best) | $0.50 |
| Output | $1.33 | $0.749 (best) | $1.50 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.05 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.739 | $0.532 (best) | $0.75 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 2 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | mistral-large-2512 |
| API providers | 1 | 3 | 17 (best) |
| Released | Feb 24, 2026 | Jan 27, 2026 | Dec 2, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | Nov 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base$8.07
- DeepSeek OCR 2$6.10
- Mistral Large 3$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base, DeepSeek OCR 2 or Mistral Large 3?
Mistral Large 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 52/100 against Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base (45) and DeepSeek OCR 2 (38). It leads on inputs & features. DeepSeek OCR 2 wins on price. 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, Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base, DeepSeek OCR 2 or Mistral Large 3?
DeepSeek OCR 2 is cheaper at $0.46 input / $0.749 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base costs $0.54 input / $1.33 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Mistral Large 3 costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.532 per million tokens for DeepSeek OCR 2 versus $0.739 for Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base (1.4× as much) and $0.75 for Mistral Large 3 (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base has not been scored yet, DeepSeek OCR 2 has not been scored yet and Mistral Large 3 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base, DeepSeek OCR 2 and Mistral Large 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base and DeepSeek OCR 2 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base and Mistral Large 3 have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 8,192 for DeepSeek OCR 2. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base up to 65,536, DeepSeek OCR 2 up to 8,192, Mistral Large 3 up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base accepts text, images and video; DeepSeek OCR 2 accepts text and images; Mistral Large 3 accepts text and images. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights (Apache-2.0), so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Base is the newest, released Feb 24, 2026. DeepSeek OCR 2 came out Jan 27, 2026; Mistral Large 3 came out Dec 2, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Large 3 Nov 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 Nov 2, 2026.
