Mistral Medium vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Mistral Medium (2023) and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (2026) are frontier reasoning models from MistralAI and Alibaba. Mistral Medium ships a 32K-token context window, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ships a 262K-token context window. On Google-Proof Q&A, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B leads by 30.4 pts. On pricing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B costs $0.39/1M input tokens versus $0.4/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B for reasoning; Mistral Medium is better when provider fit matters more.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2023-12-11 | 2026-02-16 |
| Context window | 32K | 262K |
| Parameters | — | 397B |
| Architecture | decoder only | MoE |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Mistral Medium | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.4/1M tokens | $0.39/1M tokens |
| Output price | $2/1M tokens | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Mistral Medium | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| Function calling | No | Yes |
| Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Mistral Medium | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Google-Proof Q&A | 58.9 | 89.3 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, Google-Proof Q&A has Mistral Medium at 58.9 and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B at 89.3, with Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ahead by 30.4 points. The largest visible gap is 30.4 points on Google-Proof Q&A, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.
The capability footprint differs most on multimodal input: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B, reasoning mode: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B, function calling: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B, and tool use: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B. Both models share structured outputs, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Mistral Medium lists $0.4/1M input and $2/1M output tokens, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B lists $0.39/1M input and $2.34/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Mistral Medium lower by about $0.09 per million blended tokens. Availability is 2 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Mistral Medium when provider fit and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Qwen3.5-397B-A17B when reasoning depth, larger context windows, and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Mistral Medium or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B supports 262K tokens, while Mistral Medium supports 32K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Mistral Medium costs $0.4/1M input and $2/1M output tokens. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B costs $0.39/1M input and $2.34/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Mistral Medium or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B open source?
Mistral Medium is listed under Apache 2.0. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is listed under Apache 2.0. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for multimodal input, Mistral Medium or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for reasoning mode, Mistral Medium or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has the clearer documented reasoning mode signal in this comparison. If reasoning mode is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Mistral Medium and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Mistral Medium is available on Mistral AI Studio and OpenRouter. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is available on OpenRouter. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.