Model Comparison
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructWhich is better in 2026?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 3.7x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct — which is better?
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct (by Mistral AI) and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval, MMLU-Pro). Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is roughly 3.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct also accepts a larger context window (131,072 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct if…
- cost matters — it's about 3.7x cheaper per token
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
- you process long inputs — it offers a 131,072 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.07/1M tokens) is 2.9x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.14/1M tokens) is 5.0x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.70/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct has 7.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct, making it 29.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 32,768 tokens, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is limited to 32,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct does not.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B 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.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 8 months newer than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.
Jan 30, 2025
1.5 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
10 months ago
7mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct's cutoff date.
Oct 2023
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Provider Availability
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is available from Novita, DeepInfra.
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
View detailsMistral AI
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.