Mistral Small 3.1 vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral or Qwen3 Coder Next 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 Coder Next scores 2.1 points higher (9.2 vs 7.1) but costs 15× as much to run the benchmark ($405 vs $27.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3 Coder Next when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.1 | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.1 | 9.2 | +29.6% Qwen3 Coder Next is 29.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.82 | $405.10 | +1356.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 15× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.78s | 6.22s | −47.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 47.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.08 / $0.14 | $0.31 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Mistral Small 3.1: 29.6% more intelligence, 1356.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 47.2% faster 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 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Mistral Small 3.1Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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