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Magistral Small 2506 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Comparing Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Magistral Small 2506

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025

Choose Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

  • you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Benchmark wins
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window
Released
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
License
Apache 2.0
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

456.0B diff

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct has 456.0B more parameters than Magistral Small 2506, making it 1900.0% larger.

Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
24.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
480.0Bparameters
24.0B
Magistral Small 2506
480.0B
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Magistral Small 2506

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct was released on 2025-01-31.

Magistral Small 2506 is 4 months newer than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 10, 2025

1.2 years ago

4mo newer
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Jan 31, 2025

1.6 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Magistral Small 2506 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Magistral Small 2506's training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct's cutoff date.

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 2025

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Magistral Small 2506
✓ Preferred
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Magistral Small 2506 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.

Which is better, Magistral Small 2506 or Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Magistral Small 2506 (Mistral AI) and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct (Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Magistral Small 2506 compare to Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct in benchmarks?

Magistral Small 2506 scores AIME 2024: 70.7%, GPQA: 68.2%, AIME 2025: 62.8%, LiveCodeBench: 51.3%. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct scores TAU-bench Retail: 77.5%, SWE-Bench Verified: 69.6%, BFCL-v3: 68.7%, Aider-Polyglot: 61.8%, TAU-bench Airline: 60.0%.

Who makes Magistral Small 2506 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Magistral Small 2506 is developed by Mistral AI and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.