Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) 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 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) scores 6.9 points higher (18.2 vs 11.3) but costs 21× as much to run the benchmark ($896 vs $42.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.3 | 18.2 | +61.1% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 61.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $42.50 | $896.39 | +2009.2% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 21× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.50s | 46.88s | +223.3% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 223.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.38 / $2.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning): 61.1% more intelligence, 2009.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 223.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
- 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 4 (Reasoning)Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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