ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 8B vs Mistral Small 3.2 vs DeepSeek V3 0324

Mistral Small 3.2 comes out ahead, 60 to 56 and 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

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

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2

  3. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek V3 0324

    Released Mar 24, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI135.9
    • Price$0.24 / $0.90
    • Context164K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek V3 0324
01 — Verdict

Mistral Small 3.2 is our pick

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Qwen3 8B (56) and DeepSeek V3 0324 (54). It leads on price and inputs & features. DeepSeek V3 0324 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · DeepSeek V3 0324 135.9 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Qwen3 8B $0.31 · DeepSeek V3 0324 $0.405 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextDeepSeek V3 0324DeepSeek V3 0324 163,840 · Qwen3 8B 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.2Qwen3 8B: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · DeepSeek V3 0324: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 8BMistral Small 3.2DeepSeek V3 0324
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%615560
Price25%748968
Inputs & features15%355025
Context window10%242428
Overall100%56/10060/10054/100
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 Small 3.2 vs DeepSeek V3 0324 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AIDeepSeek V3 0324DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)136.2 (best)131.7135.9
ECI rank#113 of 148 (best)#123 of 148#114 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.8%49.1%67.6% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics56.1% (best)30.3%37.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.18$0.10 (best)$0.24
Output$0.70$0.30 (best)$0.90
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.31$0.15 (best)$0.405
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 5 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens128,000 tokens163,840 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens163,840 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model IDqwen3-8bmistral-small-2506—
API providers16 (best)5
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Jun 20, 2025Mar 24, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Mar 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 Small 3.2$1.60
  • DeepSeek V3 0324$4.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 8B, Mistral Small 3.2 or DeepSeek V3 0324?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 60/100 against Qwen3 8B (56) and DeepSeek V3 0324 (54). It leads on price and inputs & features. DeepSeek V3 0324 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 8B, Mistral Small 3.2 or DeepSeek V3 0324?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen3 8B costs $0.18 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); DeepSeek V3 0324 costs $0.24 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.31 for Qwen3 8B (2.1× as much) and $0.405 for DeepSeek V3 0324 (2.7× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148), DeepSeek V3 0324 135.9 (#114 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.7–138.1 vs 132.4–138.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek V3 0324 67.6%, Qwen3 8B 56.8%, Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, DeepSeek V3 0324 37.8%, Mistral Small 3.2 30.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 8B, Mistral Small 3.2 and DeepSeek V3 0324 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. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek V3 0324 has the largest context window at 163,840 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 8B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 8B up to 8,192, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, DeepSeek V3 0324 up to 163,840 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 8B accepts text; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images; DeepSeek V3 0324 accepts text. Mistral Small 3.2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Qwen3 8B came out Apr 28, 2025; DeepSeek V3 0324 came out Mar 24, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 8B Apr 2025, 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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