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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

Mistral Small 3.1 24B comes out ahead, 55 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
  2. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is our pick

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.1 24BQwen3 Max: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 MaxMistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6850
Price25%3276
Inputs & features15%2560
Context window10%3724
Overall100%50/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 Max vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4 (best)127.5
ECI rank#91 of 148 (best)#132 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions72.6% (best)47.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics19.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3% (best)5.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.20$0.229 (best)
Output$6.00$0.436 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$2.40$0.281 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3-max—
API providers16 (best)2
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Jun 2024
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 Max$24.00
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 Max or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (8.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 122.6–129.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 Max 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 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Max accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.1 24B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024.

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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