Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking leads the LLM Stats Score 12.9 to 4.2.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking leads the overall LLM Stats Score 12.9 to 4.2, ranking #249 overall.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking wins 3; 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 VL 4B Thinking
- overall performance matters — it scores 12.9 and ranks #249 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
- 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
9 reported for Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct · 48 for Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro).
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct has 20.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking, making it 500.0% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking specifies output context (262,144 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 4B 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
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct was released on 2025-03-17, while Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking is 6 months newer than Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.
Mar 17, 2025
1.5 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
12 months ago
6mo 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 VL 4B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 4B Thinking.
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