Compare / Qwen3-Max vs Mistral Large 3
Qwen3-Max vs Mistral Large 3
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Of the 16 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-Max or Mistral Large 3? The short answer
Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 9.3). Pick Mistral Large 3 if cost matters more: it costs 2.1 times less per token.
- Mistral Large 3 is cheaper: $0.75 against $1.56 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.
- Qwen3-Max scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 15.6 against 9.3.
- Mistral Large 3 is newer: released 2 Dec 2025, against 24 Sep 2025 for Qwen3-Max.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-Max does better for reasoning and knowledge; Mistral Large 3 for writing.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-Max | Mistral Large 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.78 in · $3.90 out | $0.50 in · $1.50 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.56 | $0.75 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.75 (Mistral) |
| Cached input, per million | – | $0.050 cached input |
| Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 9.3 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 78 |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Released | 24 Sep 2025 | 2 Dec 2025 (newer) |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | France |
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.
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.
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | Mistral Large 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 108 · 120 of 387 measured | 1,423 | 1,414 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 110 · 124 of 380 measured | 1,419 | 1,410 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 105 · 126 of 385 measured | 1,393 | 1,374 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 123 · 180 of 243 measured | 15.6 | 9.3 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 132 · 161 of 231 measured | 76.4% | 68.0% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 140 · 213 of 242 measured | 11.9% | 4.2% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 115 · 104 of 230 measured | 38.6 | 41.6no reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 69 of 230 measured | 23.0% | 15.0%no reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 155 · 35 of 230 measured | 0.33 | 0.38no reasoning |
Show all 16 results (7 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | Mistral Large 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 129 of 338 measured | 1,417 | 1,427 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 106 · 123 of 387 measured | 1,413 | 1,400 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 101 · 121 of 386 measured | 1,405 | 1,389 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 118 · 156 of 195 measured | 44.2% | 36.2% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 154 · 175 of 233 measured | 50.0% | 36.0% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 91 · 107 of 190 measured | 20.5% | 15.9% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 79 · 155 of 193 measured | 74.3% | 24.6% |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-Max better than Mistral Large 3?
Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 9.3). Pick Mistral Large 3 if cost matters more: it costs 2.1 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-Max or Mistral Large 3?
Mistral Large 3 is cheaper: $0.75 against $1.56 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-Max or Mistral Large 3?
Mistral Large 3 ranks 134 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 154 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-Max or Mistral Large 3?
Qwen3-Max ranks 121 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 158 for Mistral Large 3.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-Max or Mistral Large 3?
Mistral Large 3 ranks 97 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 99 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-Max or Mistral Large 3?
Qwen3-Max ranks 50 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 122 for Mistral Large 3.
Run Qwen3-Max and Mistral Large 3 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.