Qwen3 Coder Flash vs GPT-5.1 Codex mini vs Mistral Medium 3.1
GPT-5.1 Codex mini comes out ahead, 59 to 50 and 50 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 Coder Flash is 13% cheaper per token.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Coder Flash
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $1.50
- Context1M
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-5.1 Codex mini
59/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $2.00
- Context400K
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.1
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context262K
GPT-5.1 Codex mini is our pick
GPT-5.1 Codex mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Qwen3 Coder Flash (50) and Mistral Medium 3.1 (50). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3 Coder Flash wins on price and 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 priceQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3 Coder Flash $0.60 · GPT-5.1 Codex mini $0.688 · Mistral Medium 3.1 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3 Coder Flash 1,000,000 · GPT-5.1 Codex mini 400,000 · Mistral Medium 3.1 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-5.1 Codex mini and Mistral Medium 3.1Qwen3 Coder Flash: Text · GPT-5.1 Codex mini: Text, Images · Mistral Medium 3.1: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Coder Flash | GPT-5.1 Codex mini | Mistral Medium 3.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 60 | 58 | 54 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 70 | 50 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 44 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 59/100 | 50/100 |
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 Coder FlashAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-5.1 Codex miniOpenAI | Mistral Medium 3.1Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 | $0.25 (best) | $0.40 |
| Output | $1.50 (best) | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.60 (best) | $0.688 | $0.80 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Median of 10 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 400,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen3-coder-flash | — | mistral-medium-2508 |
| API providers | 10 (best) | 10 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Jul 28, 2025 | Nov 13, 2025 | Aug 12, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Sep 30, 2024 | May 2025 |
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 Flash$6.00
- GPT-5.1 Codex mini$6.50
- Mistral Medium 3.1$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Coder Flash, GPT-5.1 Codex mini or Mistral Medium 3.1?
GPT-5.1 Codex mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Qwen3 Coder Flash (50) and Mistral Medium 3.1 (50). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3 Coder Flash wins on price and 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 Flash, GPT-5.1 Codex mini or Mistral Medium 3.1?
Qwen3 Coder Flash is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). GPT-5.1 Codex mini costs $0.25 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (median across 10 API providers); Mistral Medium 3.1 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 $0.60 per million tokens for Qwen3 Coder Flash versus $0.688 for GPT-5.1 Codex mini (1.1× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3.1 (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3 Coder Flash has not been scored yet, GPT-5.1 Codex mini has not been scored yet and Mistral Medium 3.1 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Coder Flash, GPT-5.1 Codex mini and Mistral Medium 3.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 Coder Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5.1 Codex mini and 262,144 for Mistral Medium 3.1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Coder Flash up to 65,536, GPT-5.1 Codex mini up to 128,000, Mistral Medium 3.1 up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Coder Flash accepts text; GPT-5.1 Codex mini accepts text and images; Mistral Medium 3.1 accepts text and images. GPT-5.1 Codex mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen3 Coder Flash, GPT-5.1 Codex mini and Mistral Medium 3.1 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
GPT-5.1 Codex mini is the newest, released Nov 13, 2025. Mistral Medium 3.1 came out Aug 12, 2025; Qwen3 Coder Flash came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Coder Flash Apr 2025, GPT-5.1 Codex mini Sep 30, 2024, Mistral Medium 3.1 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.
