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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Mistral Large 3 vs MiniMax-M2

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 53, Mistral Large 3 50, MiniMax-M2 48). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $1.55
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 3

    Released Dec 2, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Large 3

  3. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M2

    Released Oct 27, 2025

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M2
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 53/100, Mistral Large 3 50/100, MiniMax-M2 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2 on price and Mistral Large 3 for long inputs. 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 priceMiniMax-M2MiniMax-M2 $0.525 · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $0.613 · Mistral Large 3 $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMistral Large 3Mistral Large 3 262,144 · MiniMax-M2 204,800 · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct and Mistral Large 3Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: Text, Images · Mistral Large 3: Text, Images · MiniMax-M2: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructMistral Large 3MiniMax-M2
Price50%605663
Inputs & features30%605035
Context window20%243732
Overall100%53/10050/10048/100

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 VL 235B A22B Instruct vs Mistral Large 3 vs MiniMax-M2 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Large 3Mistral AIMiniMax-M2MiniMax
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30 (best)$0.50$0.30 (best)
Output$1.55$1.50$1.20 (best)
Cached input—$0.05—
Blended (3:1)$0.613$0.75$0.525 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 12 providersOfficial Mistral APIOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens (best)204,800 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID—mistral-large-2512MiniMax-M2
API providers1213 (best)13 (best)
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Dec 2, 2025Oct 27, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMar 31, 2025Nov 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct$6.10
  • Mistral Large 3$8.00
  • MiniMax-M2$5.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct, Mistral Large 3 or MiniMax-M2?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 53/100, Mistral Large 3 50/100, MiniMax-M2 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2 on price and Mistral Large 3 for long inputs. 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct, Mistral Large 3 or MiniMax-M2?

MiniMax-M2 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.30 input / $1.55 output per million tokens (median across 12 API providers); Mistral Large 3 costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M2 versus $0.613 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct (1.2× as much) and $0.75 for Mistral Large 3 (1.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has not been scored yet, Mistral Large 3 has not been scored yet and MiniMax-M2 has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct, Mistral Large 3 and MiniMax-M2 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?

Mistral Large 3 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 204,800 for MiniMax-M2 and 131,072 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct up to 32,768, Mistral Large 3 up to 262,144, MiniMax-M2 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct accepts text and images; Mistral Large 3 accepts text and images; MiniMax-M2 accepts text. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Mistral Large 3 is the newest, released Dec 2, 2025. MiniMax-M2 came out Oct 27, 2025; Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct Mar 31, 2025, Mistral Large 3 Nov 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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