DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B leads the LLM Stats Score 14.7 to 4.5. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 2.0x cheaper per token.
DeepSeek · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 14.7 to 4.5, ranking #219 overall.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is roughly 2.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B also accepts a larger context window (128,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B
- overall performance matters — it scores 14.7 and ranks #219 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 128,000 token context window
Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 2.0x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B · 8 for Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B ($0.10/1M tokens) is 1.4x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.07/1M tokens).
For output processing, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B ($0.40/1M tokens) is 2.9x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.14/1M tokens).
In conclusion, DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B is more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B has 46.6B more parameters than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct, making it 194.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,000 tokens. DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is limited to 32,000 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B is licensed under MIT, 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.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B was released on 2025-01-20, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 0 month newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B.
Jan 20, 2025
1.6 years ago
Jan 30, 2025
1.6 years ago
1w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B'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 DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B's cutoff date.
—
Oct 2023
Provider Availability
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B is available from DeepInfra. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.