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Head-to-head comparison

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral AI) and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct (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 9 September 2026

As of 9 September 2026, Mistral Medium 3.5 holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#56 vs #57); Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 3.9× cheaper per output token ($1.90/1M vs $7.50/1M); and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #56 against #57 (56.0 vs 55.6 points).
  • Arena coding is your yardstick — 1479 against 1465.
  • AA τ²-Bench Telecom is your yardstick — 94.2% against 35.1%.
  • AA Humanity's Last Exam is your yardstick — 13.8% against 6.6%.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Mistral Medium 3.5 was listed 30 April 2026, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 23 September 2025.

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct if…

  • API cost matters — $1.90/1M output tokens against $7.50/1M, about 3.9× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.21/1M against $1.50/1M.
  • you want to self-host: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ships open weights while Mistral Medium 3.5 is api only.
  • you want provider choice — 5 listed API providers against 1.

Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
FieldMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AIQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructQwen
ModelCap Index position#56#57
Index score56.055.6
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$1.50$0.21
Output price / 1M tokens$7.50$1.90
Context window262K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens210K33K
API providers listed15
Weight accessAPI onlyOpen weights
Input modalitiesText, Image, FileText, Image
First listed30 April 202623 September 2025
PublisherMistral AIQwen

Evidence: 4 public benchmark observations across 4 boards · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Public benchmark boards where Mistral Medium 3.5 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct has a published result
BoardMistral Medium 3.5Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)14791468–149014651451–1478Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena AgentLMArena-9.3%-10.9%–-7.8%—Only one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis14.9intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecified—Only one result
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Artificial Analysis50.6%terminal-bench:2.1:terminus-2:e2b:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Mistral Medium 3.5":reasoning=true—Only one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis94.2%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Mistral Medium 3.5":reasoning=true35.1%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Qwen3 VL 235B A22B":reasoning=falseMistral Medium 3.5
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis13.8%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Mistral Medium 3.5":reasoning=true6.6%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Qwen3 VL 235B A22B":reasoning=falseMistral Medium 3.5

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 VL 235B A22B Instruct: common questions

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 better than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Mistral Medium 3.5 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 9 September 2026: #56 against #57. 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. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Mistral Medium 3.5 cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is cheaper on output tokens: $1.90/1M against $7.50/1M. Input tokens are $1.50/1M for Mistral Medium 3.5 and $0.21/1M for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $6.75 for Mistral Medium 3.5 versus $1.37 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs 79.7% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Both publish a 262K-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Mistral Medium 3.5 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Arena coding: Mistral Medium 3.5 1479, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 1465 — Mistral Medium 3.5 leads.

Are Mistral Medium 3.5 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct open-weight models?

Mistral Medium 3.5: API only. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for Mistral Medium 3.5 and 5 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct, 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 9 September 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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