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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3

Mistral Medium 3 comes out ahead, 47 to 41 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct

    Released Apr 2025

    41/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.45 / $2.25
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct
  2. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Medium 3

    Released May 7, 2025

    47/100
    • 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

Mistral Medium 3 is our pick

Mistral Medium 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (41). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct wins on context window. 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 priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct $0.90 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 262,144 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Medium 3Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructMistral Medium 3
Price50%5254
Inputs & features30%2550
Context window20%3724
Overall100%41/10047/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—134.1
ECI rank—#117 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—59.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—32.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.45$0.40 (best)
Output$2.25$2.00 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.90$0.80 (best)
Long-context rateOver 32K: $0.75 / $3.75Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instructmistral-medium-2505
API providers13 (best)5
ReleasedApr 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-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct$9.00
  • Mistral Medium 3$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3?

Mistral Medium 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (41). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct wins on context window. 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-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3?

Mistral Medium 3 is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct costs $0.45 input / $2.25 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 $0.90 for Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct has not been scored yet and Mistral Medium 3 has an ECI of 134.1.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct and Mistral Medium 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct up to 65,536, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 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-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 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-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B Instruct 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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