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 2026-08-07.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3 Coder Next scores 6.4 points higher (21.3 vs 14.9) but costs 8.4× as much to run the benchmark ($250 vs $29.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3 Coder Next when you need intelligence above 14.9, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 14.9 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.1 | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 14.9 | 21.3 | +43.0% Qwen3 Coder Next is 43.0% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $29.83 | $250.18 | +738.7% Qwen3 Coder Next is 8.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.82s | 5.28s | +9.5% Qwen3 Coder Next is 9.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.30 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Mistral Small 3.1: 43.0% more intelligence, 738.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 9.5% 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-5.6 Luna (medium) scores 38.90 for $21.1.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-5.6 Luna (max) scores 52.30 for $172.
Mistral Small 3.1Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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