Mistral Small 3.1 vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 3.1 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 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) scores 11.1 points higher (18.2 vs 7.1) but costs 32× as much to run the benchmark ($896 vs $27.8; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.1 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.1 | 18.2 | +156.3% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 2.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.82 | $896.39 | +3122.1% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 32× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.55s | 46.94s | +344.9% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 344.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.08 / $0.14 | $0.38 / $2.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Mistral Small 3.1: 156.3% more intelligence, 3122.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 344.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Small 3.1 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- 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.
Mistral Small 3.1Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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