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Head-to-head comparison

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral AI) and Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Qwen) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 18 August 2026

As of 18 August 2026, Qwen3.5 397B A17B holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#27 vs #38); Qwen3.5 397B A17B is 3.2× cheaper per output token ($2.34/1M vs $7.50/1M); and Qwen3.5 397B A17B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…

  • you want the more recently listed model — Mistral Medium 3.5 was listed 30 April 2026, Qwen3.5 397B A17B 16 February 2026.

Choose Qwen3.5 397B A17B if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #27 against #38 (62.3 vs 53.9 points).
  • API cost matters — $2.34/1M output tokens against $7.50/1M, about 3.2× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.39/1M against $1.50/1M.
  • you want to self-host: Qwen3.5 397B A17B ships open weights while Mistral Medium 3.5 is api only.
  • you want provider choice — 11 listed API providers against 1.
  • Arena coding is your yardstick — 1491 against 1479.
  • Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index is your yardstick — 34.3 against 30.4.

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3.5 397B A17B
FieldMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AIQwen3.5 397B A17BQwen
ModelCap Index position#38#27
Index score53.962.3
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$1.50$0.39
Output price / 1M tokens$7.50$2.34
Context window262K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens—66K
API providers listed111
Weight accessAPI onlyOpen weights
Input modalitiesText, Image, FileText, Image, Video
First listed30 April 202616 February 2026
PublisherMistral AIQwen

Evidence: 4 public benchmark observations across 4 boards · 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Public benchmark boards where Mistral Medium 3.5 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B has a published result
BoardMistral Medium 3.5Qwen3.5 397B A17BLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)14791468–149014911486–1497Qwen3.5 397B A17B
LMArena AgentLMArena-7.0%-9.0%–-5.0%—Only one result
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis30.4intelligence-index34.3intelligence-indexQwen3.5 397B A17B

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B: common questions

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 better than Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 18 August 2026: #27 against #38. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 cheaper than Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B is cheaper on output tokens: $2.34/1M against $7.50/1M. Input tokens are $1.50/1M for Mistral Medium 3.5 and $0.39/1M for Qwen3.5 397B A17B. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Both publish a 262K-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Arena coding: Mistral Medium 3.5 1479, Qwen3.5 397B A17B 1491 — Qwen3.5 397B A17B leads.

Are Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3.5 397B A17B open-weight models?

Mistral Medium 3.5: API only. Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for Mistral Medium 3.5 and 11 for Qwen3.5 397B A17B, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 18 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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