Mistral Large 3 vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max leads the LLM Stats Score 21.7 to 10.6. Qwen3 Max is 1.7x cheaper per token.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 Max leads the overall LLM Stats Score 21.7 to 10.6, ranking #177 overall.
On price, Qwen3 Max is roughly 1.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3 Max also accepts a larger context window (256,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Mistral Large 3
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Qwen3 Max
- overall performance matters — it scores 21.7 and ranks #177 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- cost matters — it's about 1.7x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
8 reported for Mistral Large 3 · 6 for Qwen3 Max
Mistral Large 3 and Qwen3 Maxdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Large 3 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 4.0x more expensive than Qwen3 Max ($0.50/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Large 3 ($5.00/1M tokens) costs the same as Qwen3 Max ($5.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Large 3 is more expensive than Qwen3 Max.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 Max has 325.0B more parameters than Mistral Large 3, making it 48.1% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 Max accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Large 3's 128,000 tokens. Qwen3 Max can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Mistral Large 3 is limited to 8,192 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Mistral Large 3 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 Max does not.
Mistral Large 3 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mistral Large 3
Qwen3 Max
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Large 3 is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Qwen3 Max uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Large 3 was released on 2025-09-01, while Qwen3 Max was released on 2025-12-15.
Qwen3 Max is 4 months newer than Mistral Large 3.
Sep 1, 2025
1.0 years ago
Dec 15, 2025
8 months ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Mistral Large 3 is available from Mistral AI. Qwen3 Max is available from Novita.
Mistral Large 3
Qwen3 Max
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Large 3 and Qwen3 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Large 3 vs Qwen3 Max.