Magistral Medium vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Magistral Medium and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking are closely matched at 13.1 and 16.3 on the LLM Stats Score.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Magistral Medium and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 13.1 and 16.3.
The models split the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models evenly.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Magistral Medium
- you are already invested in the Mistral AI ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
6 reported for Magistral Medium · 50 for Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Magistral Medium outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (AIME 2025).
Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Magistral Medium has 15.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking, making it 166.7% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking specifies output context (262,144 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Magistral Medium and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Magistral Medium
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Magistral Medium was released on 2025-06-10, while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is 3 months newer than Magistral Medium.
Jun 10, 2025
1.3 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Magistral Medium has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Magistral Medium's training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking's cutoff date.
Jun 2025
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Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Magistral Medium and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Magistral Medium vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking.