Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 235B A22B
Qwen3 235B A22B leads the LLM Stats Score 15.6 to 4.2.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 235B A22B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 15.6 to 4.2, ranking #233 overall.
In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 235B A22B wins 5; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
- you are already invested in the Mistral AI ecosystem
Choose Qwen3 235B A22B
- overall performance matters — it scores 15.6 and ranks #233 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 5 of 5 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
9 reported for Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct · 23 for Qwen3 235B A22B
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 5 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MBPP, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3 235B A22B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 235B A22B has 211.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct, making it 879.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Qwen3 235B A22B specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 235B A22B does not.
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Qwen3 235B A22B
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 3.1 24B Instruct was released on 2025-03-17, while Qwen3 235B A22B was released on 2025-04-29.
Qwen3 235B A22B is 1 month newer than Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.
Mar 17, 2025
1.5 years ago
Apr 29, 2025
1.4 years ago
1mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct and Qwen3 235B A22B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 235B A22B.