Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime

Pick up to 3 models · pricing, context and capabilities · simulate your product cost

Data updated on September 30, 2026· 217 models

MistralSmall 3

Mistral Small 3 is a 24B-parameter language model optimized for low-latency performance across common AI tasks.

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Reasoning estimated
Speed estimated
▲
Input
Output
Context
33 K tokens
Max output
16 K
Input, $ per 1M tokens
▲$0.050
Output, $ per 1M tokens
▲$0.080
Cache read, $ per 1M
—
Batch (input / output)
—
Tool calling
No
Released
01/30/2025
Knowledge cutoff
—
API id
mistralai/mistral-small-24b-instruct-2501
QwenMax Prime

Qwen3.8 Max Prime is a higher-throughput variant of Qwen3.8 Max from Alibaba's Qwen team, served as a separate SKU at a higher price point.

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Reasoning estimated
▲
Speed estimated
Input
Output
Context
▲1 M tokens
Max output
▲131 K
Input, $ per 1M tokens
$4.00
Output, $ per 1M tokens
$12.00
Cache read, $ per 1M
$0.500
Batch (input / output)
—
Tool calling
Yes
Released
▲09/23/2026
Knowledge cutoff
—
API id
qwen/qwen3.8-max-prime
Third model (optional)
text image audio video PDF / file reasoning (1 to 5, estimated by family) speed (1 to 4, estimated by family)▲ best value among the selected

Which is the better API choice: Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime?

  • Mistral Small 3: cheapest input (99% less than Qwen3.8 Max Prime)
  • Mistral Small 3: cheapest output
  • Qwen3.8 Max Prime: largest context (1 M)
  • Qwen3.8 Max Prime: the newest (09/23/2026)
  • Qwen3.8 Max Prime: most reasoning (estimated)
  • Mistral Small 3: the fastest (estimated)

Mistral Small 3 costs 99% less on input and 99% less on output than Qwen3.8 Max Prime ($0.050 / $0.080 versus $4.00 / $12.00 per million tokens). Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts images; Qwen3.8 Max Prime has a reasoning mode.

What would your product cost?

Estimate the monthly cost with your app's real volume. List prices, no cache or batch discounts.

Mistral Small 3
$1.07/mo
Qwen3.8 Max Prime
$108.00/mo

With Mistral Small 3 you save $106.93 a month versus Qwen3.8 Max Prime (99% less).

The 6 cheapest for this scenario (chat, last 12 months)

  1. 1Lyria 3 Pro Preview Google$0.00
  2. 2Lyria 3 Clip Preview Google$0.00
  3. 3Qwen3.7 Flash Qwen$0.97
  4. 4DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 DeepSeek$1.55
  5. 5Ministral 3 3B 2512 Mistral$1.90
  6. 6Qwen3.5-Flash Qwen$2.02

Paste your prompt: tokens and cost per model

Rough estimate (about 4 characters per token). Nothing is sent to any server.

76tokens approx.287 characters

Cost of sending it 1,000 times (input only)

  1. 1Mistral Small 3 Mistral$0.004
  2. 2Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic$0.152
  3. 3Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic$0.152
  4. 4Qwen3.8 Max Prime Qwen$0.304
  5. 5Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic$0.304
  6. 6Claude Opus 5 Anthropic$0.380
  7. 7Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic$0.760
  8. 8Claude Fable 5 Anthropic$0.760

Popular comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Which is the better API choice: Mistral Small 3 vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime?

Mistral Small 3 costs 99% less on input and 99% less on output than Qwen3.8 Max Prime ($0.050 / $0.080 versus $4.00 / $12.00 per million tokens). Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts images; Qwen3.8 Max Prime has a reasoning mode.

Which is cheaper: Mistral Small 3 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime?

Mistral Small 3 is cheaper: $0.050 per million input tokens and $0.080 per million output tokens, versus $4.00 / $12.00 for Qwen3.8 Max Prime.

Which has more context: Mistral Small 3 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime?

Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts 1 M tokens of context; Mistral Small 3 accepts 33 K.

Which is newer: Mistral Small 3 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime?

Qwen3.8 Max Prime was released on 09/23/2026; Mistral Small 3 on 01/30/2025.

What would 10,000 requests a month cost with Mistral Small 3 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime?

With 1,500 input and 400 output tokens per request: Mistral Small 3: $1.07; Qwen3.8 Max Prime: $108.00 a month, at list price.

Where do the prices come from and how often are they updated?

From the public catalogs of OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM, which publish each provider's list prices. They sync once a day and the last update date is shown above the comparison.

What does price per million tokens mean?

It is what the provider charges per million tokens you send (input) or the model generates (output). A token is roughly 4 characters. Output almost always costs more than input.

Sources: OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM. Prices in USD per million tokens, list price, no volume discounts. Prompt tokens are an estimate; each provider's tokenizer may differ.