Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Mistral Large 3 vs Qwen 3 Max benchmark

Name: Mistral Large 3 vs Qwen 3 Max AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Mistral Large 3 (Mistral) and Qwen 3 Max (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Qwen 3 Max is ahead by 62 points (1,518 vs 1,456; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Qwen 3 Max resolves 67.8% versus 55.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Mistral Large 3 streams faster (112 tok/s) while Qwen 3 Max is the cheaper output token ($3.9/1M). Qwen 3 Max has the larger context window (262k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Mistral

Mistral Large 3

Mistral European flagship with strong function calling.

Elo 1,456$6/1M out

Alibaba

Qwen 3 Max

Alibaba flagship. Strong math and multilingual code.

Elo 1,518$3.9/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Mistral Large 3 (2)vsQwen 3 Max (8)

Mistral Large 3: 2W (20%)Overall: Qwen 3 MaxQwen 3 Max: 8W (80%)

← Mistral Large 3Qwen 3 Max →

Qwen 3 Max (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,456vs1,518

Coding Elo

—vs1,526

SWE-bench

55.4%vs67.8%

LiveBench

61.8%vs69.4%

GPQA Diamond

74.1%vs83.1%

Mistral Large 3: 0WQwen 3 Max: 5W

Mistral Large 3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

112 tok/svs80 tok/s

Time to first token

190 msvs280 ms

Mistral Large 3: 2WQwen 3 Max: 0W

Qwen 3 Max (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$6/1Mvs$3.9/1M

Input price

$2/1Mvs$0.78/1M

Context window

128kvs262k

Mistral Large 3: 0WQwen 3 Max: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageQwen 3 Max 5/6

Preference Elo

Qwen 3 Max

62 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Mistral Large 3

32 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Qwen 3 Max

$2.10/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,456

EloHigh is better

1,518+4%

Code Elo

High is better

—

Code EloHigh is better

1,526

LiveBench

High is better

61.8%

LiveBenchHigh is better

69.4%+12%

SWE-bench

High is better

55.4%

SWE-benchHigh is better

67.8%+22%

GPQA

High is better

74.1%

GPQAHigh is better

83.1%+12%

TTFT

Low is better

+47%190 ms

TTFTLow is better

280 ms

Speed

High is better

+40%112 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

80 tok/s

In $

Low is better

$2/1M

In $Low is better

$0.78/1M+156%

Out $

Low is better

$6/1M

Out $Low is better

$3.9/1M+54%

Context

High is better

128k

ContextHigh is better

262k+105%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 46% with Qwen 3 Max

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Mistral Large 3$160.00 / mo

In: $70.00Out: $90.00

Qwen 3 Max$85.80 / mo

In: $27.30Out: $58.50

Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen 3 Max is estimated to save $74.20/month ($890/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Qwen 3 Max:Pick Qwen 3 Max when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Mistral Large 3:Pick Mistral Large 3 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Qwen 3 Max:Pick Qwen 3 Max as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsQwen 3 Max

Higher SWE-bench (67.8%).

High-volume chatQwen 3 Max

Lower output list price ($3.9/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIMistral Large 3

Lower TTFT (190 ms).

Long-document RAGQwen 3 Max

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionQwen 3 Max

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Qwen 3 Max	Higher SWE-bench (67.8%).
High-volume chat	Qwen 3 Max	Lower output list price ($3.9/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Mistral Large 3	Lower TTFT (190 ms).
Long-document RAG	Qwen 3 Max	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	Qwen 3 Max	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchApr 18, 2026

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Closed flagship. Strong math. Compare to Sol and Opus on GPQA and SWE-bench, not on brand heat.

launchJan 18, 2026

Mistral Large 3: the European flagship with function calling

Jan 2026. Not the Elo crown. Useful when residency and tools matter more than Arena.

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

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LIVE

Mistral

Mistral Large 3

Elo 1,456

LiveBench61.8%

SWE-bench55.4%

Speed112 tok/s

Output cost$6/1M

Alibaba

Qwen 3 Max

Elo 1,518

LiveBench69.4%

SWE-bench67.8%

Speed80 tok/s

Output cost$3.9/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Mistral Large 3 or Qwen 3 Max?: Qwen 3 Max has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,518). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Mistral Large 3 or Qwen 3 Max?: Qwen 3 Max leads SWE-bench at 67.8% vs 55.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Qwen 3 Max output tokens are $3.9/1M versus $6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Mistral Large 3 or Qwen 3 Max?: Mistral Large 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (190 ms vs 280 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Qwen 3 Max accepts 262k tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Mistral Large 3 and Qwen 3 Max Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Mistral Large 3 matchups →|All Qwen 3 Max matchups →

Mistral Large 3 vs Codestral 25.01 (previous mistral)Qwen 3 Max vs Qwen QwQ 32B (previous qwen)Qwen 3 Max vs Qwen3.8 27B (next qwen)Qwen 2.5 Plus vs Mistral Large 3 Doubao Pro 1.5 vs Mistral Large 3 Qwen3 235B vs Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3 vs Qwen 3 Max benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Mistral Large 3 (2)vsQwen 3 Max (8)

Mistral Large 3: 2W (20%)Overall: Qwen 3 MaxQwen 3 Max: 8W (80%)

← Mistral Large 3Qwen 3 Max →

Qwen 3 Max (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,456vs1,518

Coding Elo

—vs1,526

SWE-bench

55.4%vs67.8%

LiveBench

61.8%vs69.4%

GPQA Diamond

74.1%vs83.1%

Mistral Large 3: 0WQwen 3 Max: 5W

Mistral Large 3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

112 tok/svs80 tok/s

Time to first token

190 msvs280 ms

Mistral Large 3: 2WQwen 3 Max: 0W

Qwen 3 Max (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$6/1Mvs$3.9/1M

Input price

$2/1Mvs$0.78/1M

Context window

128kvs262k

Mistral Large 3: 0WQwen 3 Max: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsQwen 3 Max

Higher SWE-bench (67.8%).

High-volume chatQwen 3 Max

Lower output list price ($3.9/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIMistral Large 3

Lower TTFT (190 ms).

Long-document RAGQwen 3 Max

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionQwen 3 Max

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Qwen 3 Max	Higher SWE-bench (67.8%).
High-volume chat	Qwen 3 Max	Lower output list price ($3.9/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Mistral Large 3	Lower TTFT (190 ms).
Long-document RAG	Qwen 3 Max	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	Qwen 3 Max	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Mistral Large 3 or Qwen 3 Max?

Qwen 3 Max has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,518). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Mistral Large 3 or Qwen 3 Max?

Qwen 3 Max leads SWE-bench at 67.8% vs 55.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Qwen 3 Max output tokens are $3.9/1M versus $6/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Mistral Large 3 or Qwen 3 Max?

Mistral Large 3 has the lower time-to-first-token (190 ms vs 280 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Qwen 3 Max accepts 262k tokens versus 128k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Mistral Large 3 and Qwen 3 Max Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Qwen 3 Max

Mistral Large 3

Qwen 3 Max

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Mistral Large 3: the European flagship with function calling

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

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CompareLLM Matrix

Mistral Large 3

Qwen 3 Max

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Qwen 3 Max

Mistral Large 3

Qwen 3 Max

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Mistral Large 3: the European flagship with function calling

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Mistral Large 3

Qwen 3 Max

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons