Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 16.4 to 8.4. Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is 2.5x cheaper per token.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct leads the overall LLM Stats Score 16.4 to 8.4, ranking #223 overall.
In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is roughly 2.5x 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 (262,144 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 Small 3.2 24B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 2.5x cheaper per token
Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- overall performance matters — it scores 16.4 and ranks #223 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 5 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- 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
15 reported for Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct · 50 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct outperforms in 1 benchmarks (AI2D), while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU, MMLU-Pro, SimpleQA).
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct ($0.07/1M tokens) is 2.0x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens) is 3.0x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ($0.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is more expensive than Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct has 7.4B more parameters than Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct, making it 31.4% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Mistral Small 3.2 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 3.2 24B Instruct was released on 2025-06-20, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is 3 months newer than Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct.
Jun 20, 2025
1.3 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
12 months ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3.2 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 3.2 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
—
Provider Availability
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita.
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.
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