Compare / Qwen3-Max vs Mistral Medium 3.1
Qwen3-Max vs Mistral Medium 3.1
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 Medium 3.1? The short answer
Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 9.2). Pick Mistral Medium 3.1 if cost matters more: it costs 49% less per token.
- Mistral Medium 3.1 is cheaper: $0.80 against $1.56 per million tokens, 49% less.
- Qwen3-Max scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 15.6 against 9.2.
- Qwen3-Max is newer: released 24 Sep 2025, against 12 Aug 2025 for Mistral Medium 3.1.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-Max does better for reasoning and knowledge.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-Max | Mistral Medium 3.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.78 in · $3.90 out | $0.40 in · $2.00 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.56 | $0.80 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.80 (Mistral) |
| Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 9.2 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Released | 24 Sep 2025 (newer) | 12 Aug 2025 |
| 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 Medium 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 108 · 130 of 387 measured | 1,423 | 1,408 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 110 · 129 of 380 measured | 1,419 | 1,407 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 105 · 123 of 385 measured | 1,393 | 1,378 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 123 · 181 of 243 measured | 15.6 | 9.2 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 132 · 184 of 231 measured | 76.4% | 58.8% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 140 · 196 of 242 measured | 11.9% | 4.7% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 115 · 114 of 230 measured | 38.6 | 39.5 |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 156 of 230 measured | 23.0% | 27.0% |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 155 · 24 of 230 measured | 0.33 | 0.39 |
Show all 16 results (7 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | Mistral Medium 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 143 of 338 measured | 1,417 | 1,410 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 106 · 133 of 387 measured | 1,413 | 1,395 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 101 · 128 of 386 measured | 1,405 | 1,386 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 118 · 135 of 195 measured | 44.2% | 39.8% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 154 · 168 of 233 measured | 50.0% | 42.7% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 91 · 127 of 190 measured | 20.5% | 10.6% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 79 · 116 of 193 measured | 74.3% | 40.6% |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-Max better than Mistral Medium 3.1?
Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 9.2). Pick Mistral Medium 3.1 if cost matters more: it costs 49% less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-Max or Mistral Medium 3.1?
Mistral Medium 3.1 is cheaper: $0.80 against $1.56 per million tokens, 49% less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-Max or Mistral Medium 3.1?
Mistral Medium 3.1 ranks 124 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 Medium 3.1?
Qwen3-Max ranks 121 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-Max or Mistral Medium 3.1?
Qwen3-Max ranks 99 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-Max or Mistral Medium 3.1?
Qwen3-Max ranks 50 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-Max or Mistral Medium 3.1?
Qwen3-Max: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3.1.
Run Qwen3-Max and Mistral Medium 3.1 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.