Mistral Small 3.1 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral or Qwen3.8 Max by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max scores 33.1 points higher (40.2 vs 7.1) but costs 114× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $27.8; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.1 | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.1 | 40.2 | +466.2% Qwen3.8 Max is 5.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.82 | $3,172.37 | +11303.2% Qwen3.8 Max is 114× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.75s | 62.87s | +435.1% Qwen3.8 Max is 435.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.08 / $0.14 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Mistral Small 3.1: 466.2% more intelligence, 11303.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 435.1% 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.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Mistral Small 3.1Qwen3.8 MaxToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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