Llama 3.2 90B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Meta · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU), while Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is better at 6 benchmarks (AI2D, ChartQA, DocVQA, MATH, MathVista, MMMU). Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Llama 3.2 90B Instruct
- you want predictable pricing at $0.35/M input and $0.40/M output
Choose Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 6 of 8 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU), while Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is better at 6 benchmarks (AI2D, ChartQA, DocVQA, MATH, MathVista, MMMU).
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct has 66.4B more parameters than Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct, making it 281.4% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Llama 3.2 90B Instruct specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only Llama 3.2 90B Instruct specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Llama 3.2 90B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct is licensed under Llama 3.2, while Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 3.2
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 3.2 90B Instruct was released on 2024-09-25, while Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct was released on 2025-06-20.
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct is 9 months newer than Llama 3.2 90B Instruct.
Sep 25, 2024
1.9 years ago
Jun 20, 2025
1.2 years ago
8mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Llama 3.2 90B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Llama 3.2 90B Instruct's cutoff date.
—
Oct 2023
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 3.2 90B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Llama 3.2 90B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2 24B Instruct.