Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3 30B A3B are closely matched at 19.0 and 17.3 on the LLM Stats Score. Qwen3 30B A3B is 1.7x cheaper per token.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3 30B A3B are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 19.0 and 17.3.
In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mistral Small 4 wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3 30B A3B is roughly 1.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mistral Small 4 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 Small 4
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 4 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2026
Choose Qwen3 30B A3B
- cost matters — it's about 1.7x cheaper per token
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 4 · 8 for Qwen3 30B A3B
Mistral Small 4 outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, LiveCodeBench), while Qwen3 30B A3B is better at 1 benchmark (Arena Hard).
Mistral Small 4 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Small 4 ($0.15/1M tokens) is 1.5x more expensive than Qwen3 30B A3B ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Small 4 ($0.60/1M tokens) is 2.0x more expensive than Qwen3 30B A3B ($0.30/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Small 4 is more expensive than Qwen3 30B A3B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Mistral Small 4 has 88.5B more parameters than Qwen3 30B A3B, making it 290.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mistral Small 4 accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 30B A3B's 128,000 tokens. Mistral Small 4 can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while Qwen3 30B A3B is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Mistral Small 4 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 30B A3B does not.
Mistral Small 4 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mistral Small 4
Qwen3 30B A3B
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 4 was released on 2026-03-16, while Qwen3 30B A3B was released on 2025-04-29.
Mistral Small 4 is 11 months newer than Qwen3 30B A3B.
Mar 16, 2026
6 months ago
10mo newerApr 29, 2025
1.4 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Mistral Small 4 is available from Mistral AI. Qwen3 30B A3B is available from DeepInfra, Novita, Fireworks.
Mistral Small 4
Qwen3 30B A3B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3 30B A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3 30B A3B.