Compare / Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Mistral Medium 3.1

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Mistral Medium 3.1

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 22 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-397B-A17B Released 13 Feb 2026 · $0.55 in · $3.50 out
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3.1 Released 12 Aug 2025 · $0.40 in · $2.00 out
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B wins 201 too close to callMistral Medium 3.1 wins 1

Of the 22 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs Mistral AI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Mistral Medium 3.1? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 9.2). Pick Mistral Medium 3.1 if cost matters more: it costs 38% less per token.

  • Mistral Medium 3.1 is cheaper: $0.80 against $1.29 per million tokens, 38% less.
  • Qwen3.5-397B-A17B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 21.4 against 9.2.
  • Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is newer: released 13 Feb 2026, against 12 Aug 2025 for Mistral Medium 3.1.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

21.4
Intelligence Index
9.2
$1.29
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.80
262,144
Context window, tokens
131,072

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-397B-A17BMistral Medium 3.1
Price per million tokens$0.55 in · $3.50 out$0.40 in · $2.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$1.29$0.80
Cheapest host, blended$0.88 (Alibaba)$0.80 (Mistral)
Intelligence Index21.49.2
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second90–
Context window262,144 tokens131,072 tokens
Released13 Feb 2026 (newer)12 Aug 2025
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinaFrance

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 70 of 164 124 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 48 of 51 not measured
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 73 of 198 160 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 69 of 188 112 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 75 of 152 130 of 152

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3.5-397B-A17BMistral Medium 3.1
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 130 of 387 measured 1,442 1,408
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 70 · 99 of 163 measured 1,445 1,429
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 73 · 129 of 380 measured 1,446 1,407
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 97 · 181 of 243 measured 21.4no reasoning 9.2
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 53 · 184 of 231 measured 89.3% 58.8%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 77 · 196 of 242 measured 29.0% 4.7%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 77 · 114 of 230 measured 50.1no reasoning 39.5
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 156 of 230 measured 23.0%no reasoning 27.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 164 · 24 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.39
Show all 22 results (13 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-397B-A17BMistral Medium 3.1
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 86 · 123 of 385 measured 1,405 1,378
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 67 · 143 of 338 measured 1,477 1,410
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 78 · 133 of 387 measured 1,434 1,395
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 128 of 386 measured 1,421 1,386
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 9 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 61 · 96 of 130 measured 51.3% 13.9%
Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 66 · 66 of 112 measured 0.0% 0.0%
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 64 · 86 of 121 measured 13.4% 8.2%
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 61 · 102 of 131 measured 48.2 20.5
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 8 · 135 of 195 measured 78.8% 39.8%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 66 · 168 of 233 measured 77.3% 42.7%
SciCode% of problems, higher is better 66 · 96 of 113 measured 44.8% 32.4%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 34 · 127 of 190 measured 40.9% 10.6%
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 16 · 116 of 193 measured 95.6% 40.6%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-397B-A17B better than Mistral Medium 3.1?

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 9.2). Pick Mistral Medium 3.1 if cost matters more: it costs 38% less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Mistral Medium 3.1?

Mistral Medium 3.1 is cheaper: $0.80 against $1.29 per million tokens, 38% less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Mistral Medium 3.1?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 70 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 124 for Mistral Medium 3.1.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Mistral Medium 3.1?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 73 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 160 for Mistral Medium 3.1.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Mistral Medium 3.1?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 69 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 112 for Mistral Medium 3.1.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Mistral Medium 3.1?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 75 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 130 for Mistral Medium 3.1.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Mistral Medium 3.1?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3.1.

Run Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Mistral Medium 3.1 on your own prompt

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