Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Qwen3.6 35B A3B leads Mistral Small 3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 18.2 to 6.7, and Mistral Small 3 costs 12.5x less per output token ($0.08 vs $1.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 6 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3.6 35B A3B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mistral Small 3 for output tokens 12.5x cheaper ($0.08 vs $1.00 per million) and work measured by AA Intelligence Index or τ²-Bench Telecom, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 6
- Mistral Small 3 only
- 30
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B only
- 14
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Qwen3.6 35B A3B leads, 18.2 against 6.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B has a AA Agentic Index result, 13.1.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Qwen3.6 35B A3B takes 262K tokens against 33K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 3
Mistral Small 3 $0.0001, Qwen3.6 35B A3B $0.0006 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Small 3 not benchmarked, Qwen3.6 35B A3B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 75.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: Mistral Small 3 19.6% against Qwen3.6 35B A3B 95.3%, 75.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Small 3 $0.08 against Qwen3.6 35B A3B $1.00 per million output tokens, 12.5x apart.
- Context window
- Mistral Small 3 takes 33K tokens, Qwen3.6 35B A3B 262K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Mistral Small 3 | Bars | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 6 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 41.9 | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 36.6% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 34.8% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| Terminal-Bench | Not measured | 24.6% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 34.5% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1246 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1248 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 6.7 | 18.2 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 143.7 | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 13.1 | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 19.6% | 95.3% | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 46.2% | 84.1% | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 3.8% | 22.2% | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 84.8% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 22.0% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1233 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1202 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1243 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 4.3 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 86.7% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 20.4% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1240 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1243 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 65.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1235 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1215 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1219 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1205 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 26.4% | 64.4% | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 0.0% | 71.7% | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
| DTBench | Not measured | 73.9% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 29.7% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | Not measured | 44.4% | Only Qwen3.6 35B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1234 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1214 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1194 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1256 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1198 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1204 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1211 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1111 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1188 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1204 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1216 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1217 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1246 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1214 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1184 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 3 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 3 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mistral Small 3 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mistral Small 3 costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Mistral Small 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | January 30, 2025 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 33K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.05 | $0.10 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.08 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Small 3 better than Qwen3.6 35B A3B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mistral Small 3 for output tokens 12.5x cheaper ($0.08 vs $1.00 per million) and work measured by AA Intelligence Index or τ²-Bench Telecom, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
Mistral Small 3 costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 35B A3B costs $0.10 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Small 3 or Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B, with 262K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B comparison based on?
6 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mistral Small 3's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.6 35B A3B's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.