Ministral 3 8B vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 8B by Mistral or Qwen3.5 397B A17B (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
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) scores 12.9 points higher (18.4 vs 5.5) but costs 34× as much to run the benchmark ($941 vs $27.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 8B | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 5.5 | 18.4 | +234.5% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 3.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.47 | $940.97 | +3325.4% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 34× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.23s | 65.18s | +946.2% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 946.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.15 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs Ministral 3 8B: 234.5% more intelligence, 3325.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 946.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Ministral 3 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Ministral 3 8BQwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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