Model Comparison

Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8 MaxWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8 Max — which is better?

Mistral Small 4 (by Mistral AI) and Qwen3.8 Max (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 4 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8 Max is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, IFBench, MMMU-Pro). Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Mistral Small 4 if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Qwen3.8 Max if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Mistral Small 4 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8 Max is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, IFBench, MMMU-Pro).

Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Aug 04 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

2281.0B diff

Qwen3.8 Max has 2281.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 4, making it 1916.8% larger.

Mistral AI
Mistral Small 4
119.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max
2.4Tparameters
119.0B
Mistral Small 4
2400.0B
Qwen3.8 Max

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Mistral Small 4 specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Mistral Small 4 specifies output context (256,000 tokens).

Mistral AI
Mistral Small 4
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Aug 04 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8 Max support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Mistral Small 4

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.8 Max

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mistral Small 4 is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Qwen3.8 Max uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Mistral Small 4

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3.8 Max

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mistral Small 4 was released on 2026-03-16, while Qwen3.8 Max was released on 2026-08-02.

Qwen3.8 Max is 5 months newer than Mistral Small 4.

Mistral Small 4

Mar 16, 2026

4 months ago

Qwen3.8 Max

Aug 2, 2026

2 days ago

4mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Mistral AI
Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Has open weights
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.8 Max

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher GPQA score (92.6% vs 71.2%)
Higher IFBench score (82.8% vs 48.0%)
Higher MMMU-Pro score (82.3% vs 60.0%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mistral Small 4
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.8 Max
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 4
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max

FAQ

Common questions about Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8 Max.

Which is better, Mistral Small 4 or Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Mistral Small 4 is made by Mistral AI and Qwen3.8 Max is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Mistral Small 4 compare to Qwen3.8 Max in benchmarks?

Mistral Small 4 scores AIME 2025: 83.8%, MMLU-Pro: 78.0%, AA-LCR: 71.2%, GPQA: 71.2%, LiveCodeBench: 63.6%. Qwen3.8 Max scores PaperBench: 93.0%, GPQA: 92.6%, VideoMME w sub.: 90.4%, RealWorldQA: 88.0%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 86.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8 Max?

Mistral Small 4 supports 256K tokens and Qwen3.8 Max supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8 Max?

Key differences include licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8 Max?

Mistral Small 4 is developed by Mistral AI and Qwen3.8 Max is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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