Model Comparison

GPT-5.6 Luna vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

GPT-5.6 Luna significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: GPT-5.6 Luna vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct — which is better?

GPT-5.6 Luna (by OpenAI) and Mistral Small 3.1 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.

GPT-5.6 Luna outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. GPT-5.6 Luna significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose GPT-5.6 Luna if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Choose Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

GPT-5.6 Luna outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

GPT-5.6 Luna significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only GPT-5.6 Luna specifies input context (1,050,000 tokens). Only GPT-5.6 Luna specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

OpenAI
GPT-5.6 Luna
Input1,050,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jul 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both GPT-5.6 Luna and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

GPT-5.6 Luna

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

GPT-5.6 Luna is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

GPT-5.6 Luna

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

GPT-5.6 Luna was released on 2026-07-09, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct was released on 2025-03-17.

GPT-5.6 Luna is 16 months newer than Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.

GPT-5.6 Luna

Jul 9, 2026

1 weeks ago

1.3yr newer
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Mar 17, 2025

1.3 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

GPT-5.6 Luna has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-16, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm GPT-5.6 Luna's training data extends to 2026-02-16, but cannot make a direct comparison without Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct's cutoff date.

GPT-5.6 Luna

Feb 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

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Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

OpenAI
Larger context window (1,050,000 tokens)
Higher GPQA score (92.3% vs 46.0%)
Mistral AI
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against GPT-5.6 Luna and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

GPT-5.6 Luna
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
OpenAI
GPT-5.6 Luna
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about GPT-5.6 Luna vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.

Which is better, GPT-5.6 Luna or Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

GPT-5.6 Luna significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. GPT-5.6 Luna is made by OpenAI and Mistral Small 3.1 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 GPT-5.6 Luna compare to Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

GPT-5.6 Luna scores Connectors: 99.9%, HealthBench Consensus: 95.1%, GPQA: 92.3%, Search and Function-Calling: 89.7%, Capture-the-Flag Challenges (Internal): 85.2%. Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct scores HumanEval: 88.4%, MMLU: 80.6%, TriviaQA: 80.5%, MBPP: 74.7%, MATH: 69.3%.

What are the context window sizes for GPT-5.6 Luna and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

GPT-5.6 Luna supports 1.1M tokens and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between GPT-5.6 Luna and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes GPT-5.6 Luna and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

GPT-5.6 Luna is developed by OpenAI and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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