Ministral 3 14B vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 14B by Mistral or Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) scores 12.2 points higher (18.2 vs 6.0) but costs 24× as much to run the benchmark ($896 vs $37.6; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 6.0, and Ministral 3 14B when 6.0 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 14B | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 6.0 | 18.2 | +203.3% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 3.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $37.56 | $896.39 | +2286.6% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 24× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 7.88s | 46.29s | +487.4% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 487.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.20 / $0.20 | $0.38 / $2.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Ministral 3 14B: 203.3% more intelligence, 2286.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 487.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Ministral 3 14B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Ministral 3 14BQwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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