ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 8B vs Mistral Small 3.2

Mistral Small 3.2 comes out ahead, 60 to 56 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. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

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). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 8B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Qwen3 8B $0.31 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 8BQwen3 8B 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.2Qwen3 8B: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 8BMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6155
Price25%7489
Inputs & features15%3550
Context window10%2424
Overall100%56/10060/100
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 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)136.2 (best)131.7
ECI rank#113 of 148 (best)#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.8% (best)49.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics56.1% (best)30.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.18$0.10 (best)
Output$0.70$0.30 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.31$0.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDqwen3-8bmistral-small-2506
API providers16 (best)
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Jun 20, 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
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 8B or Mistral Small 3.2?

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

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

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). 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).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 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 126.6–133.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 8B 56.8%, Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, Mistral Small 3.2 30.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 8B and Mistral Small 3.2 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 has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 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 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

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

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both 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. 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

Related comparisons