Model Comparison

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B vs Mistral Medium 3.5Which is better in 2026?

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Verdict: Qwen3.6-35B-A3B vs Mistral Medium 3.5 — which is better?

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Mistral Medium 3.5 (by Mistral AI) 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.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GDPval-AA), while Mistral Medium 3.5 is better at 1 benchmark (SWE-Bench Verified). Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Choose Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if…

  • you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem

Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2026

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GDPval-AA), while Mistral Medium 3.5 is better at 1 benchmark (SWE-Bench Verified).

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Fri Jul 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

93.0B diff

Mistral Medium 3.5 has 93.0B more parameters than Qwen3.6-35B-A3B, making it 265.7% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
35.0Bparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5
128.0Bparameters
35.0B
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
128.0B
Mistral Medium 3.5

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Mistral Medium 3.5 specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Mistral Medium 3.5 specifies output context (256,000 tokens).

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
Fri Jul 17 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Qwen3.6-35B-A3B and Mistral Medium 3.5 support multimodal inputs.

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

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Medium 3.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Mistral Medium 3.5 uses Modified MIT License.

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

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Mistral Medium 3.5

Modified MIT License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B was released on 2026-04-16, while Mistral Medium 3.5 was released on 2026-04-29.

Mistral Medium 3.5 is 0 month newer than Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apr 16, 2026

3 months ago

Mistral Medium 3.5

Apr 29, 2026

2 months ago

1w 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

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher GDPval-AA score (35.2% vs 30.9%)
Mistral AI
Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (77.6% vs 73.4%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen3.6-35B-A3B and Mistral Medium 3.5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
✓ Preferred
Mistral Medium 3.5
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Mistral AI
Mistral Medium 3.5

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen3.6-35B-A3B vs Mistral Medium 3.5.

Which is better, Qwen3.6-35B-A3B or Mistral Medium 3.5?

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Mistral Medium 3.5 is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Qwen3.6-35B-A3B compare to Mistral Medium 3.5 in benchmarks?

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scores MMLU-Redux: 93.3%, MMBench-V1.1: 92.8%, AI2D: 92.7%, AIME 2026: 92.7%, RefCOCO-avg: 92.0%. Mistral Medium 3.5 scores COLLIE: 95.8%, Tau3 Telecom: 91.4%, AIME 2025: 86.3%, SWE-Bench Verified: 77.6%, Tau3 Retail: 76.1%.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3.6-35B-A3B and Mistral Medium 3.5?

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B supports an unknown number of tokens and Mistral Medium 3.5 supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen3.6-35B-A3B and Mistral Medium 3.5?

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

Who makes Qwen3.6-35B-A3B and Mistral Medium 3.5?

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Mistral Medium 3.5 is developed by Mistral AI.

Related comparisons