Compare / Alibaba vs Mistral AI

AI labs compared · October 2026

Alibaba vs Mistral AI: which AI lab is ahead?

Each lab's best model on sale goes head to head on every kind of work we measure, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. 39 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

27 models on sale with our resultsAlibaba Best: Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · newest: Qwen3.8-27B
12 models on sale with our resultsMistral AI Best: Mistral Large 4 · newest: Mistral Large 4
Alibaba wins 5Mistral AI wins 2

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 7 both are measured on.

Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe). Models on sale means listed on OpenRouter today.

Alibaba or Mistral AI? The short answer

Alibaba is ahead: its best models beat Mistral AI's in 5 of the 7 kinds of work both are measured on; Mistral AI leads in 2.

  • Pick Alibaba for decks from an analysis, agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
  • Pick Mistral AI for product listings and marketing planning.
  • On our overall leaderboard, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is #12 (48 of 100) and Mistral Large 4 is #17 (37).
  • Prices start at $0.11 per million tokens for Alibaba (Qwen3.5-9B) and $0.058 for Mistral AI (Mistral Small 3).

Head to head

48Qwen3.8-Max (0902)
Best Spring Prompt overall score
37Mistral Large 4
45.4Qwen3.8-Max (0902)
Best Intelligence Index
38.4Mistral Large 4
$3.00Qwen3.8-Max (0902)
Flagship price, per million tokens
$2.06Mistral Large 4
$0.11Qwen3.5-9B
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$0.058Mistral Small 3
27
Models on sale with our results
12

Each line names the model behind the number. Prices are blended, three input tokens to one output, at the developer's list price where we have read it; see every model's price. Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis; overall score from our leaderboard.

Which lab is better for what

For each kind of work, each lab's best model there and its rank among every model on sale. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live 17 of 20Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 14 of 20Mistral Medium 3.5
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is 11 of 19Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 16 of 19Mistral Medium 3.5
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled not measured 4 of 8Mistral Large 4
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending 14 of 19Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 10 of 19Mistral Large 4
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 7 of 164Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 21 of 164Mistral Large 4
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 18 of 51Qwen3.8-Max (0902) not measured
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 17 of 198Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 44 of 198Mistral Large 4
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 16 of 188Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 86 of 188Mistral Medium 3.5
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 6 of 152Qwen3-8B 9 of 152Mistral Small 3
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 8 of 22Mistral Medium 3.5

Every model, by intelligence and price

Each dot is a model on sale with an Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis. Up is smarter; left is cheaper. Hover or tap a dot for its name.

AlibabaMistral AI

01020304050 $0.01$0.1$1$10 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index Qwen3.8-Max (0902)Qwen3.8-27BQwen3.7-MaxQwen3.6-Max-PreviewQwen3.6-PlusMistral Large 4

On our overall leaderboard

The 3 of their models we rank overall: one score out of 100 across everything we publish (how the score works). Only models with enough of our own results are ranked.

  1. #12Qwen3.8-Max (0902)48
  2. #17Mistral Large 437
  3. #20Mistral Medium 3.518

Benchmark by benchmark

The headline result of every benchmark both labs have models on: each lab's best model and its rank among the models on sale. Green marks the better rank.

MeasureAlibabaMistral AI
Agents and tool use
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 52.2%Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 · 13 of 3837.7%Mistral Medium 3 · 21 of 38
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 38.9%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 11 of 10526.8%Mistral Large 4 · 17 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 88.8%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 5 of 11550.6%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 58 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48.0%Qwen3.8-27B · 5 of 11315.1%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 57 of 113
Decks from an analysis
DeckBench · Deck ratingrating, higher is better 1,100Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 11 of 19646Mistral Medium 3.5 · 16 of 19
Marketing planning
ROASBench · Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better 25.4Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 14 of 1937.0Mistral Large 4 · 10 of 19
Product listings
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better 28.6%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 13 of 2017.9%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 16 of 20
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better 0.0%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 18 of 2010.7%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 9 of 20
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 45.4Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 13 of 19838.4Mistral Large 4 · 29 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 43.1%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 23 of 19735.0%Mistral Large 4 · 54 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 92.8%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 15 of 18776.9%Mistral Small 4 · 112 of 187
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 4.8%Qwen3-8B · 5 of 795.1%Mistral Small 3 · 6 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,472Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 18 of 1131,434Mistral Large 3 · 71 of 113
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,482Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 17 of 1661,427Mistral Medium 3.5 · 73 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 58.2Qwen3.6-Plus · 38 of 13845.5Mistral Medium 3.5 · 68 of 138

Their models, one against one

Quick answers

Is Alibaba or Mistral AI better?

Alibaba is ahead: its best models beat Mistral AI's in 5 of the 7 kinds of work both are measured on; Mistral AI leads in 2.

What is Alibaba's best model?

Qwen3.8-Max (0902): #12 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 45.4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

What is Mistral AI's best model?

Mistral Large 4: #17 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 38.4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Alibaba or Mistral AI?

Alibaba: its best model there, Qwen3.8-Max (0902), ranks 7 of 164 models on sale, against 21 for Mistral AI's Mistral Large 4.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Alibaba or Mistral AI?

Alibaba: its best model there, Qwen3.8-Max (0902), ranks 17 of 198 models on sale, against 44 for Mistral AI's Mistral Large 4.

Which is better for writing, Alibaba or Mistral AI?

Alibaba: its best model there, Qwen3.8-Max (0902), ranks 16 of 188 models on sale, against 86 for Mistral AI's Mistral Medium 3.5.

Which is cheaper, Alibaba or Mistral AI?

Mistral AI's cheapest model with results, Mistral Small 3, costs $0.058 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.11 for Qwen3.5-9B from Alibaba.

Other labs compared

Which model is best for your product?

Benchmarks aren't your data. We test the models from Alibaba, Mistral AI and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard