ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 8B vs Mistral Medium 3

Qwen3 8B comes out ahead, 56 to 53 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B

  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. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3 8B is our pick

Qwen3 8B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability and price. Mistral Medium 3 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · Mistral Medium 3 134.1
  • Lowest priceQwen3 8BQwen3 8B $0.31 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3 8B 131,072 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Qwen3 8B: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3 8BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 8BMistral Medium 3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6158
Price25%7454
Inputs & features15%3550
Context window10%2424
Overall100%56/10053/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 8B vs Mistral Medium 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)136.2 (best)134.1
ECI rank#113 of 148 (best)#117 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.8%59.5% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics56.1% (best)32.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.18 (best)$0.40
Output$0.70 (best)$2.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.31 (best)$0.80
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-8bmistral-medium-2505
API providers15 (best)
ReleasedApr 28, 2025May 7, 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 8B$3.20
  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 8B or Mistral Medium 3?

Qwen3 8B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on capability and price. Mistral Medium 3 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 8B or Mistral Medium 3?

Qwen3 8B is cheaper at $0.18 input / $0.70 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 $0.31 per million tokens for Qwen3 8B versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (2.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148) and Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.7–138.1 vs 130.5–135.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Qwen3 8B 56.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, Mistral Medium 3 32.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 8B and Mistral Medium 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 8B 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?

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

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 8B accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 8B 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 8B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 8B 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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