Qwen3.6 Plus is $1.18 cheaper per 1M input tokens (78.3% lower; 4.62x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
NewMistral Medium 3.5 vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Pick Qwen3.6 Plus when budget and context both matter.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Qwen3.6 Plus when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 Plus is estimated at $1.3 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $3.95 (75.2% lower).
Cost-first pickQwen3.6 Plus
Context-first pickQwen3.6 Plus
Sample savings$3.9575.2%
10x traffic gap$39.5
Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $39.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Qwen3.6 Plus stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Qwen3.6 Plus | $11.25 | $2.6 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Qwen3.6 Plus | $9 | $2.27 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Qwen3.6 Plus | $39 | $10.07 |
Qwen3.6 Plus is $5.55 cheaper per 1M output tokens (74% lower; 3.85x difference).
Qwen3.6 Plus has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).
Qwen3.6 Plus is $3.95 cheaper on the standard workload (75.2% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Qwen3.6 Plus has the lower input price; Qwen3.6 Plus has the lower output price; Qwen3.6 Plus offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5 and $1.3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
Choose Qwen3.6 Plus when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 Plus is estimated at $1.3 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $3.95 (75.2% lower).
- Qwen3.6 Plus is $3.95 cheaper on the standard workload (75.2% lower).
- Qwen3.6 Plus is $1.18 cheaper per 1M input tokens (78.3% lower; 4.62x difference).
- Qwen3.6 Plus is $5.55 cheaper per 1M output tokens (74% lower; 3.85x difference).
- Qwen3.6 Plus has 737.86K more context (3.81x larger).
| Feature | NewMistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral) | Qwen3.6 Plus (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $1.5 | $0.325 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $7.5 | $1.95 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $5.25 | $1.3 |
| Context Window | 262.14K | 1M |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Qwen3.6 Plus | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 Plus is estimated at $1.3 vs $5.25 for Mistral Medium 3.5, saving $3.95 (75.2% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Qwen3.6 Plus | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Qwen3.6 Plus | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Qwen3.6 Plus | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Mistral Nemo can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.04.
- Mistral Small 3 can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.15.
- Mistral Small 3.2 24B can replace Mistral Medium 3.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.17.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- No popular competitor is currently available.
Cheaper alternatives
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
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Open provider hubsMistral catalog
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Open Mistral modelsQwen catalog
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