Model Comparison

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 vs Mistral Small 3 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct — which is better?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 (by NVIDIA) 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.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval), while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.07/M input and $0.14/M output

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, IFEval), while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

229.0B diff

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has 229.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct, making it 954.2% larger.

NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
253.0Bparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
24.0Bparameters
253.0B
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
24.0B
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct specifies input context (32,000 tokens). Only Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct specifies output context (32,000 tokens).

NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input32,000 tokens
Output32,000 tokens
Sun Jul 26 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 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 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Llama 3.1 Community License

Open weights

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 was released on 2025-04-07, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is 2 months newer than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Apr 7, 2025

1.3 years ago

2mo newer
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Jan 30, 2025

1.5 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has a knowledge cutoff of 2023-12-01, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a cutoff of 2023-10-01.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 has more recent training data (up to 2023-12-01), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct (2023-10-01).

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1

Dec 2023

2 mo newer
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Oct 2023

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

NVIDIA
Higher GPQA score (76.0% vs 45.3%)
Higher IFEval score (89.5% vs 82.9%)
Mistral AI
Larger context window (32,000 tokens)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
NVIDIA
Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Which is better, Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 or Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is made by NVIDIA 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 Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 compare to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 scores MATH-500: 97.0%, IFEval: 89.5%, GPQA: 76.0%, BFCL v2: 74.1%, AIME 2025: 72.5%. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct scores Arena Hard: 87.6%, HumanEval: 84.8%, MT-Bench: 83.5%, IFEval: 82.9%, MATH: 70.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 supports an unknown number of 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 Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (Llama 3.1 Community License vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Llama 3.1 Nemotron Ultra 253B v1 is developed by NVIDIA and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

Related comparisons