Mistral Small 3.2 vs Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 3.2 by Mistral or Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (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 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) scores 5.7 points higher (12.7 vs 7.0) but costs 1.9× as much to run the benchmark ($234 vs $122; both mid-range class). Pick Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mistral Small 3.2.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.2 | Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.0 | 12.7 | +81.4% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 81.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $121.78 | $233.56 | +91.8% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 91.8% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.52s | 22.73s | +116.1% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 116.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.07 / $0.20 | $0.23 / $2.30 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) vs Mistral Small 3.2: 81.4% more intelligence, 91.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 116.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Small 3.2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
- Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Mistral Small 3.2Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/mistral-small-3-2/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-small-3-2/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill