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Which versions are we comparing?
This page compares Mistral Large 4 public preview through Mistral AI with qwen3.8-max through QwenCloud. The Qwen endpoint is a rolling name, not a dated snapshot we have pinned. Both prices come from the provider pages linked below.
Qwen3.8-Max is not a stand-in for every Qwen model. Rates from another provider or region may differ. A benchmark for Qwen3.8-Max-0902 or an open-weight Qwen variant should not silently replace a result for this endpoint.
Comparison rule: keep the provider, endpoint, date and pricing conditions attached to the result. If one changes, check the comparison again.
Side-by-side specifications
| Detail | Le Chonk preview | qwen3.8-max (rolling endpoint) |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | QwenCloud |
| Endpoint | mistral-large-4 | qwen3.8-max |
| Input / output price | $0.68 / $2.09 | $2.00 / $6.00 |
| Context | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Modalities | Multimodal input; text output | Text, image and video input; text output |
| Weight release | Pending release | Exact endpoint weights not verified |
| Weight license | Not verified for this exact version | Not verified for this exact version |
| Same-condition test by this site | Not run | Not run |
QwenCloud lists image and video input. Exact limits and extra tool charges should be checked for your request. The Mistral source describes multimodal input; this site has not tested formats.
Same workload, different bill
At 2,000 input tokens, 1,000 output tokens and 10,000 requests a month, Le Chonk costs $34.50 and Qwen3.8-Max costs $100.00. The difference is $65.50, or 65.5% of Qwen’s token bill in this example.
The output-heavy case matters too. With no input tokens and one million output tokens, the listed prices are $2.09 and $6.00. With one million input tokens and no output, they are $0.68 and $2.00. For these fixed uncached rates, changing the mix does not reverse which is cheaper per token.
However, if Le Chonk needs more attempts or longer outputs, the cost of an accepted answer can change. In the default example, roughly 2.9 Le Chonk attempts cost the same as one Qwen attempt. This is arithmetic, not a prediction about either model’s retry rate.
10,000 requests per month
| Model / provider | Input / output¹ | Per request | Monthly | vs Le Chonk² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le ChonkMistral AI ↗ | $0.68 / $2.09 | $0.00345 | $34.50 | Baseline |
| Qwen3.8-MaxQwenCloud ↗ | $2.00 / $6.00 | $0.01000 | $100.00 | +$65.50 |
| DeepSeek Pro · off-peakDeepSeek direct API ↗ | $0.66 / $1.98 | $0.00330 | $33.00 | −$1.50 |
| DeepSeek Pro · peakDeepSeek direct API ↗ | $1.32 / $3.96 | $0.00660 | $66.00 | +$31.50 |
| DeepSeek Flash · off-peakDeepSeek direct API ↗ | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.00090 | $9.00 | −$25.50 |
| DeepSeek Flash · peakDeepSeek direct API ↗ | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.00180 | $18.00 | −$16.50 |
¹ USD per million uncached tokens. ² Monthly difference; a minus sign means cheaper. No caching, batch discounts, tool fees, taxes or tokenization differences. DeepSeek peak and off-peak rates are shown separately. Mistral also lists higher $1.36 / $4.18 rates; no discount end date confirmed.
The table compares a fixed number of tokens, not measured task cost. Tokenizers, reasoning output, tool use and retries can differ. It excludes caching, batch pricing, tax and tool charges.
What can the benchmarks tell us?
Mistral’s launch post reports a 49.8% Coding Agent Index result and places its preview ahead of Qwen3.8 Max and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813. That is a vendor’s report of an external evaluation. We have not checked the evaluator’s complete run records.
We do not have directly verified, same-condition scores for both sides of this page. There is no site-run head-to-head test, latency measurement or quality rating. That leaves us without enough evidence to name an overall performance winner.
A coding agent test also includes more than the underlying model: tools, time limits and retry budgets matter. A score may help pick models to try, but it does not measure how well your application handles its own data.
Inspect the benchmark evidence and missing conditions →How to choose for your own work
For coding
Take a few real issues from a repository you can test. Give each model the same files, tools and time limit. Run the tests, review the patch, and count completed issues. Record the total token spend, including unsuccessful attempts.
For document work
Use documents with known answers and include questions that the documents cannot answer. Check quotations, page references and missing facts. For images or scans, verify the exact endpoint supports the input before sending a batch.
For a tight budget
Le Chonk has the lower listed uncached token prices in this comparison. Start with the same small task set, then check whether its accepted-answer cost stays lower. If you use a lot of repeated context, price the provider’s caching separately.
Keep a small decision sheet
- Exact model version and provider.
- Accepted tasks out of attempted tasks.
- Wall-clock time, tool errors and manual fixes.
- Input, output, cached tokens and total cost.
- Which failures matter enough to reject a model.
Set the acceptance rule before looking at the model name. That makes it easier to choose based on the work you need done.
What about self-hosting?
Le Chonk’s weights are pending a verified release. This page also does not establish a downloadable artifact and license for the exact Qwen API endpoint listed above. A model family having open weights does not prove that a particular hosted version can be reproduced locally.
For a self-hosted comparison, record the actual repository revision, quantization, inference framework and hardware. Include idle GPU time, maintenance and throughput in the cost. API rates alone cannot tell you whether renting hardware will save money.
See why active parameters are not the memory budget →Sources & next steps
- Mistral Large 4 release announcement
API preview, planned weight release, 49B active parameters and reported benchmark results.
- Mistral Large model documentation
1.05T total, 52B active, 1M context. Displays both $0.68 / $2.09 and higher $1.36 / $4.18 prices. No discount end date confirmed.
- Qwen3.8-Max model and pricing
QwenCloud endpoint qwen3.8-max. USD uncached input/output rates; not a quote for every region or reseller.