Model Comparison

Claude 3 Sonnet vs Mistral Small 3 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 68.6x cheaper per token.

Verdict: Claude 3 Sonnet vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct — which is better?

Claude 3 Sonnet (by Anthropic) and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct (by Mistral AI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU-Pro). Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

On price, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is roughly 68.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude 3 Sonnet also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Choose Claude 3 Sonnet if…

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 4 shared benchmarks
  • cost matters — it's about 68.6x cheaper per token
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

4 benchmarks

Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 4 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval, MATH, MMLU-Pro).

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Jun 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 42.9x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.07/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 107.1x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.14/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude 3 Sonnet is more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Jun 12 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input tokens$0.07
Output tokens$0.14
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude 3 Sonnet accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,000 tokens. Claude 3 Sonnet can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is limited to 32,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input32,000 tokens
Output32,000 tokens
Fri Jun 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude 3 Sonnet supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct does not.

Claude 3 Sonnet can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3 Sonnet was released on 2024-02-29, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 11 months newer than Claude 3 Sonnet.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Feb 29, 2024

2.3 years ago

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Jan 30, 2025

1.4 years ago

11mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Claude 3 Sonnet's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude 3 Sonnet's cutoff date.

Claude 3 Sonnet

—

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Oct 2023

Provider Availability

Claude 3 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI.

Claude 3 Sonnet

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.07/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.14/1M
mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.30/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Mistral AI
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights
Higher GPQA score (45.3% vs 40.4%)
Higher HumanEval score (84.8% vs 73.0%)
Higher MATH score (70.6% vs 43.1%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (66.3% vs 56.8%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3 Sonnet vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude 3 Sonnet or Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude 3 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude 3 Sonnet compare to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude 3 Sonnet scores ARC-C: 93.2%, GSM8k: 92.3%, HellaSwag: 89.0%, MGSM: 83.5%, BIG-Bench Hard: 82.9%. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct scores Arena Hard: 87.6%, HumanEval: 84.8%, MT-Bench: 83.5%, IFEval: 82.9%, MATH: 70.6%.

Is Claude 3 Sonnet cheaper than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 42.9x cheaper for input tokens. Claude 3 Sonnet costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct costs $0.07/M input and $0.14/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3 Sonnet and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Claude 3 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct supports 32K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3 Sonnet and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Key differences include context window (200K vs 32K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.07/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3 Sonnet and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Claude 3 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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