Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct are closely matched at 7.6 and 4.2 on the LLM Stats Score. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 3.5x cheaper per token.
Meta · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 7.6 and 4.2.
The models split the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models evenly.
On price, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is roughly 3.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct 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 Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
- you process long inputs — it offers a 128,000 token context window
Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 3.5x 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
18 reported for Llama 3.1 70B Instruct · 8 for Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (IFEval, MMLU-Pro), while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, HumanEval).
Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens) is 4.0x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.05/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens) is 2.5x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.08/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct has 46.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct, making it 191.7% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,768 tokens. Llama 3.1 70B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is limited to 32,768 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.1 Community 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.
Llama 3.1 Community License
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 6 months newer than Llama 3.1 70B Instruct.
Jul 23, 2024
2.2 years ago
Jan 30, 2025
1.7 years ago
6mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Llama 3.1 70B Instruct'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 Llama 3.1 70B Instruct's cutoff date.
—
Oct 2023
Provider Availability
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct is available from Lambda, DeepInfra, Hyperbolic, Groq, Cerebras, Together, Fireworks, Bedrock, Sambanova. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI.
Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 70B Instruct and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Llama 3.1 70B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.