QwQ Plus vs Mistral Medium 3
Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Medium 3 53, QwQ Plus 52). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)QwQ Plus
52/100- ECI—
- Price$0.80 / $2.40
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, QwQ Plus 52/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: QwQ Plus for raw capability and Mistral Medium 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because QwQ Plus has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityQwQ PlusShared benchmarks: QwQ Plus 65.4% · Mistral Medium 3 59.5%
- Lowest priceMistral Medium 3Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 · QwQ Plus $1.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameQwQ Plus 131,072 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Medium 3QwQ Plus: Text · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | QwQ Plus | Mistral Medium 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 65 | 60 |
| Price | 25% | 46 | 54 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 52/100 | 53/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | QwQ PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 134.1 |
| ECI rank | — | #117 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 65.4% (best) | 59.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 32.2% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.80 | $0.40 (best) |
| Output | $2.40 | $2.00 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.20 | $0.80 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwq-plus | mistral-medium-2505 |
| API providers | 2 | 5 (best) |
| Released | Mar 5, 2025 | May 7, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 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.
- QwQ Plus$12.80
- Mistral Medium 3$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: QwQ Plus or Mistral Medium 3?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Mistral Medium 3 53/100, QwQ Plus 52/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: QwQ Plus for raw capability and Mistral Medium 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because QwQ Plus has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, QwQ Plus or Mistral Medium 3?
Mistral Medium 3 is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). QwQ Plus costs $0.80 input / $2.40 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 $1.20 for QwQ Plus (1.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): QwQ Plus 65.4% and Mistral Medium 3 59.5%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — QwQ Plus 65.4%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for QwQ Plus and Mistral Medium 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, QwQ Plus 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?
QwQ Plus and Mistral Medium 3 share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: QwQ Plus up to 8,192, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
QwQ Plus accepts text; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images. Mistral Medium 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. QwQ Plus and Mistral Medium 3 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. QwQ Plus came out Mar 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: QwQ Plus Apr 2024, 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.
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