Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 leads the LLM Stats Score 46.2 to 14.7. Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is 1.2x cheaper per token.
Meta · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Mistral Large 4 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 46.2 to 14.7, ranking #34 overall.
On price, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is roughly 1.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mistral Large 4 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 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 Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 1.2x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Mistral Large 4
- overall performance matters — it scores 46.2 and ranks #34 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
18 reported for Llama 3.1 405B Instruct · 18 for Mistral Large 4
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and Mistral Large 4don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens) is 1.3x more expensive than Mistral Large 4 ($0.68/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct ($0.89/1M tokens) is 2.3x cheaper than Mistral Large 4 ($2.09/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Large 4 is more expensive than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Mistral Large 4 has 645.0B more parameters than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct, making it 159.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mistral Large 4 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Llama 3.1 405B Instruct's 128,000 tokens. Only Llama 3.1 405B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Mistral Large 4 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Llama 3.1 405B Instruct does not.
Mistral Large 4 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Mistral Large 4
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community License, while Mistral Large 4 uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 3.1 Community License
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while Mistral Large 4 was released on 2026-10-06.
Mistral Large 4 is 27 months newer than Llama 3.1 405B Instruct.
Jul 23, 2024
2.2 years ago
Oct 6, 2026
1 days ago
2.2yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is available from Lambda, DeepInfra, Fireworks, Bedrock, Together, Hyperbolic, Google, Replicate. Mistral Large 4 is available from Mistral AI.
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct
Mistral Large 4
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 405B Instruct and Mistral Large 4 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Llama 3.1 405B Instruct vs Mistral Large 4.