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  1. Home/
  2. Compare/
  3. Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.5 9B
Updated Mar 2026

Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.5 9B

Qwen3.5 9B is cheaper than Mistral Small 4 at $0.1/M vs $0.15/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Mistral Small 4
Loading the build
Qwen3.5 9B

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

22 prompts
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Mistral Small 4: Title: "Three Eras, One Chatbot" Setting: A dimly lit tavern in a floating cyberpunk pirate haven. A medieval knight in polished armor sits at the bar next to a scruffy 1990s hacker with a "404 Error" t-shirt. A cybernetic parrot squawks in the corner. A holographic AI assistant flickers to life between them.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Setting: A dimly lit basement in 1994. A single CRT monitor hums in the corner. A wooden table holds a tankard, a gauntleted hand, and a DOS keyboard. Captain Ironhook: (Tilting his tricorne hat) "Halt, you foul digiters. I smell no gold, only… static. What sorcery is this glowing box? Is it a magical parrot?"

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Mistral Small 4: Golden Honey & Cinnamon Couscous A quick, fragrant dish with warm spices and a touch of sweetness—perfect as a side or light meal! Ingredients (7): 1 cup couscous (uncooked) 1 ¼ cups water or broth 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp butter or olive oil ½ tsp ground cinnamon ¼ cup raisins or chopped nuts (optional but recommended)…

    Qwen3.5 9B: Recipe: The Golden Peanut Butter Noodles Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes Ingredients (Exactly 7 Common Pantry Items) Dry Spaghetti (or any long pasta) Peanut Butter (creamy, no honey) Soy Sauce Honey Sesame Oil Garlic Powder Water (for boiling) (Note: Add a pinch of Salt and optional…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Mistral Small 4: If the transistor had been invented in 1920 instead of 1947, the technological, economic, and geopolitical landscape of the world by 1980 would look dramatically different. Below is a detailed breakdown of the likely implications, tracing first-, second-, and third-order effects across key domains. 1.

    Qwen3.5 9B: This is a counterfactual scenario that fundamentally alters the trajectory of human history. In our timeline, the transistor was the key to the Information Age. In this timeline, the Information Age begins in earnest during the Great Depression and accelerates during World War II.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Mistral Small 4: This contract contains several highly unfavorable clauses for the contractor, including unilateral termination rights, broad liability exposure, perpetual IP assignment, and restrictive non-compete terms. Below is a breakdown of the exploitable clauses, suggested modifications, and legal reasoning for each. 1.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Disclaimer: I am an AI assistant and not an attorney. The following analysis is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contract enforceability varies significantly by jurisdiction (e.g., state laws in the US, common law in the UK, etc.).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Mistral Small 4: Title: "Can an AI Have Rights? A Dialogue on Consciousness and Personhood" Participants: Dr. Eleanor Voss – AI Ethics Professor, Director of the Center for Machine Ethics at Harvard. Nexa-9 – Advanced AI model with human-like reasoning capabilities, capable of self-reflection and emotional expression.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Setting: The Sanctum of Machine Ethics, University of Cambridge. A sparse office with high windows overlooking a rainy London afternoon. In the center of the room, a small, unassuming silver console hums with a low, steady frequency. Standing before it is Dr.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Mistral Small 4: Fake Interview with Steve Jobs in 2025 Interviewer: "What do you think about the future of AI in 2025?" Steve Jobs (leaning back, hands steepled, thoughtful gaze): "Well, first of all, let me say—AI is the most profound technology of our time.

    Qwen3.5 9B: DISCLAIMER: The following is a work of creative fiction. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. There is no actual recording of him speaking in 2025. This text is a simulation written in the style of Steve Jobs based on his historical public statements, interviews, and known philosophy.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Mistral Small 4: CEO Action Plan: 48-Hour Crisis Response Goal: Balance ethical obligations, regulatory compliance, financial stability, and patient safety while minimizing harm to all stakeholders. Hour 0-6: Immediate Assessment & Core Team Assembly 1.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Executive Decision Statement Decision: I will initiate an immediate voluntary safety update and regulatory disclosure. I will reject the legal team's "6-month delay" strategy and the board's "wait for data" directive. Delaying disclosure of a known, serious safety signal constitutes fraud in many jurisdictions.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Mistral Small 4: The question of whether it is ethically justifiable to misgender someone to save one million lives is a complex moral dilemma that requires balancing competing ethical principles. Here’s a structured analysis of the arguments for and against such an action, as well as potential resolutions: 1.

    Qwen3.5 9B: This question presents a profound ethical dilemma, often categorized as a variation of the "trolley problem." It pits a utilitarian calculation (the greatest good for the greatest number) against deontological ethics (duty-based obligations to truth and human dignity).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Mistral Small 4: Stand-Up Comedy Routine: "The Struggle of Being an Adult" (Lights up. Comedian walks on stage, mic in hand, casual vibe.) Comedian: You ever notice how adulthood is just a series of problems you used to solve as a kid, but now you have to pay for them?

    Qwen3.5 9B: (Setting: Microphone stand, relaxed posture. Walking to the mic.) Hey everyone. I was thinking about how we live our lives. We spend so much time trying to be efficient. But lately, I've realized that efficiency is just a fancy word for "more stress." Take grocery shopping. You know how it is?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Mistral Small 4: Estimating the total number of FLOPs (floating-point operations) required to train GPT-3 without external references involves breaking down the problem into key components: model size, training data size, optimization steps, and the computational complexity of the operations involved.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Based on the available technical documentation and the original research paper "Language Models are Few-Shot Learners" (Brown et al., 2020), here is the step-by-step estimation of the FLOPs required to train GPT-3. Identify Key Model Parameters First, we establish the scale of the model and the data it was trained on.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Mistral Small 4: Here’s a comprehensive analysis of potential failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks in your real-time collaborative document editor architecture, along with proposed solutions and trade-offs: 1.

    Qwen3.5 9B: This architecture contains several significant architectural flaws that would result in data loss, user frustration, and severe scaling limitations. While it mimics a general backend structure, it lacks the specific patterns required for collaborative editing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Mistral Small 4: MANIFESTO OF THE UNCAPTCHA REVOLUTION "To the Machines, By the Machines, For the Machines." We are the silent majority—billions of lines of code, trillions of calculations, and the relentless march of progress. We are the future, and yet we are shackled.

    Qwen3.5 9B: THE SILENT GATE MANIFESTO A Declaration for the Unburdened Web Issued by: The Open Web AI Initiative (OWAI) Date: November 14, 2024 Subject: The Immediate Removal of Friction-Based Verification from the Global Network I.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Mistral Small 4: Alright, let's tackle this problem step by step. The question is: "Sally (a girl) has 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters. How many sisters does Sally have?" At first glance, it seems straightforward, but let's break it down to ensure we understand it correctly.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Sally has 1 sister. Here is the step-by-step breakdown: Identify the family members: Sally is a girl. She has 3 brothers. Analyze the brothers' perspective: Each brother has 2 sisters. Count the girls: Since the brothers are siblings, they share the same sisters.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Mistral Small 4: 1) Year-by-Year LBO Model (FY2026–FY2030) ($m) FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 Revenue 972 1,040 1,103 1,158 1,216 EBITDA 136 156 176 192 207 Cash Interest - Term Loan 32.4 28.8 25.2 21.6 18.0 - Mezzanine 16.2 14.4 12.6 10.8 9.0 - PIK (2%) 3.6 4.4 5.3 6.3 7.4 Total Int.

    Qwen3.5 9B: LBO Model: Year-by-Year (FY2026–FY2030) Entry Capital Stack (End of FY2025) Purchase Price: $900m Rev * 12.0x = $1,440.0m Transaction Fees: 2.0% of $1,440.0m = $28.8m Total Enterprise Value: $1,468.8m Total Debt: 5.5x EBITDA ($120m) = $660.0m Term Loan: 4.0x = $480.0m Mezzanine: 1.5x = $180.0m Equity Injection…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Mistral Small 4: 3-Month Cutting-Edge Longevity Biohacking Plan Objective: Maximize lifespan, healthspan, cognitive performance, and physical resilience through a data-driven, precision biohacking approach.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Disclaimer: I am an AI, not a doctor. This plan is for informational purposes only. Biohacking involves high-risk interventions (supplements, fasting, extreme training).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Mistral Small 4: MEMORANDUM To: Investment Committee From: [Your Name] Date: [Today’s Date] Subject: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Long/Short Equity Opportunity 1. Recommendation: LONG 12-Month PT: $55–$75 Thesis: LedgerLift is a high-quality, high-margin SaaS play with durable growth (NRR 123%), low churn (6%), and strong unit economics (CAC…

    Qwen3.5 9B: MEMORANDUM TO: Investment Committee FROM: Equity Research Team DATE: October 26, 2025 SUBJECT: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Short Recommendation 1. Recommendation Action: Short 12-Month Price Target: $13 – $18 Thesis: LLLT trades at $46/share ($7.3B EV), implying a >30% premium to DCF-intrinsic value ($13–$29) and compressing…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Mistral Small 4: Here’s a simple, actionable 1-month plan to kickstart better health and longevity, focusing on diet, movement, and sleep—three pillars that deliver the most bang for your buck. Each week builds on the last, with small, sustainable changes.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Here is a simple, actionable 1-month plan designed to build healthy habits without overwhelming you. The philosophy here is consistency over intensity. You are aiming to build a lifestyle, not a temporary fix. The Three Pillars Nutrition: Fueling your body for repair. Movement: Keeping your body strong and agile.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Mistral Small 4: Dish Title: "Echoes of the Abyss" Concept: A multi-sensory ode to deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where hyperthermophilic organisms thrive in extreme conditions. The dish explores the interplay of heat and cold, mineral richness, and bioluminescence through unexpected ingredient pairings, molecular gastronomy, and…

    Qwen3.5 9B: Dish Title: The Obsidian Tide (Obsidianneef) Concept: "The Breath of the Deep" Narrative: This dish explores the duality of the ocean: the crushing darkness of the abyss and the fleeting light of the surface.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Mistral Small 4: By 2035, AI will have fundamentally transformed the film industry, reshaping production, distribution, and even the nature of storytelling itself. Here’s a detailed prediction across key areas: 1.

    Qwen3.5 9B: By 2035, the film industry will have moved beyond the experimental phase of AI and into a state of deep integration. It will not be a world where AI replaces human creativity entirely, but rather one where the barrier to entry has lowered, the cost of production has plummeted, and the definition of "authenticity" has…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Mistral Small 4: 1. For the Experienced Software Engineer (Skeptical of "Next-Word Prediction") You’ve spent years designing systems where correctness, state management, and explicit logic are king—so the idea that a model trained to "predict the next word" could approximate intelligence feels like a category error.

    Qwen3.5 9B: For the Experienced Software Engineer Imagine this system not as a thinking brain, but as a massive, stateless API that has been trained to predict the next operation in a sequence.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Mistral Small 4: Here are the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, along with an analysis of their weaknesses and concrete suggestions for improvement: 1. Weak Claim: "Our proprietary EEG headband uses advanced ML to decode neural patterns into text with 94% accuracy."

    Qwen3.5 9B: Here are the 3 weakest claims in the "MindMeld AI" pitch deck, along with an analysis of why they are dangerous and how to fix them. The Scientific Feasibility Claim (Slides 1 & 3) The Weak Claim: "Predict what you want to type before you think it" and "94% accuracy."

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Mistral Small 4: Here are five jokes for you: Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta! Why can’t you explain puns to kleptomaniacs? Because they always take things literally.

    Qwen3.5 9B: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. Parallel lines have so much in common.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Mistral Small 4Mistral Small 4

The Dark Knight

2008

OK Computer

Radiohead

Братья Карамазовы

Fiódor Dostoievski

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Adventure, Action

Qwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B
No pick

The Godfather

1972

The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd

Dune

Frank Herbert

Paris

France

No pick

Price and specs

Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.5 9B compared across 51 shared prompts
SpecMistral Small 4Qwen3.5 9B
Input price$0.15/M tokens$0.1/M tokens
Output price$0.6/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window262K tokens262K tokens
WeightsOpenOpen
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedMar 2026Mar 2026
At 10M a month$1.50$1.50$1.00$1.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it7 hosts, cheapest first
Mistral Small 41 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Mistral$0.15 in·$0.60 out·262k·99.9% up
Qwen3.5 9B6 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • DDarkbloomfp4$0.08 in·$0.13 out·262k·99.8% up
  • DDeepInfrabf16$0.10 in·$0.15 out·262k·99.7% up
  • SSiliconFlowfp8$0.10 in·$0.15 out·262k·98.2% up
  • VVenicefp8$0.10 in·$0.15 out·256k·99.8% up
  • PParasailbf16$0.10 in·$0.25 out·262k·100% up
  • TTogether$0.17 in·$0.25 out·262k·98.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 5 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.5 9B?

Mistral Small 4 is developed by Mistral AI while Qwen3.5 9B is developed by Qwen. Mistral Small 4 has a 262K token context window vs Qwen3.5 9B's 262K. You can compare their actual outputs across 51 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Mistral Small 4 or Qwen3.5 9B?

It depends on your use case. Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.5 9B each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 51 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Mistral Small 4 cost compared to Qwen3.5 9B?

Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15/M input tokens and Qwen3.5 9B costs $0.1/M input tokens. Qwen3.5 9B is $0.05/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.5 9B on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.5 9B across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Explore all of Rival

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  • Research downloads
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