Qwen3 Max vs Mixtral 8x7B
Qwen3 Max comes out ahead, 50 to 37 on our weighted score, though Mixtral 8x7B is 3.4× cheaper per token.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Max
50/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
Mistral AIMixtral 8x7B
37/100- ECI118.5
- Price$0.70 / $0.70
- Context32K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Qwen3 Max is our pick
Qwen3 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Mixtral 8x7B (37). It leads on capability and context window. Mixtral 8x7B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Mixtral 8x7B 118.5
- Lowest priceMixtral 8x7BMixtral 8x7B $0.70 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Mixtral 8x7B 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3 Max: Text · Mixtral 8x7B: Text
- Self-hostingMixtral 8x7BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Max | Mixtral 8x7B |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 68 | 38 |
| Price | 25% | 32 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 37/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | Mixtral 8x7BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.4 (best) | 118.5 |
| ECI rank | #91 of 148 (best) | #142 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 72.6% (best) | 30.6% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 19.0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 73.3% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 48.8% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.20 | $0.70 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 | $0.70 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.40 | $0.70 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwen3-max | open-mixtral-8x7b |
| API providers | 16 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Sep 23, 2025 | Dec 11, 2023 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Jan 2024 |
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
- Mixtral 8x7B$8.40
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Max or Mixtral 8x7B?
Qwen3 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Mixtral 8x7B (37). It leads on capability and context window. Mixtral 8x7B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Mixtral 8x7B?
Mixtral 8x7B is cheaper at $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). 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 $0.70 per million tokens for Mixtral 8x7B versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (3.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and Mixtral 8x7B 118.5 (#142 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 111.3–121.3), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Mixtral 8x7B 30.6%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max and Mixtral 8x7B 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 32,000 for Mixtral 8x7B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Mixtral 8x7B up to 32,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Max accepts text; Mixtral 8x7B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Mixtral 8x7B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Mixtral 8x7B came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Mixtral 8x7B Jan 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.
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