Model Comparison
Llama 4 Maverick vs Pixtral-12BWhich is better in 2026?
Llama 4 Maverick significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Pixtral-12B is 1.8x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Llama 4 Maverick vs Pixtral-12B — which is better?
Llama 4 Maverick (by Meta) and Pixtral-12B (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 4 Maverick outperforms in 6 benchmarks (ChartQA, DocVQA, MATH, MathVista, MMLU, MMMU), while Pixtral-12B is better at 0 benchmarks. Llama 4 Maverick significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Pixtral-12B is roughly 1.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Llama 4 Maverick also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Llama 4 Maverick if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 6 of 6 shared benchmarks
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
Choose Pixtral-12B if…
- cost matters — it's about 1.8x cheaper per token
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Llama 4 Maverick outperforms in 6 benchmarks (ChartQA, DocVQA, MATH, MathVista, MMLU, MMMU), while Pixtral-12B is better at 0 benchmarks.
Llama 4 Maverick significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 4 Maverick ($0.17/1M tokens) is 1.1x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 4 Maverick ($0.60/1M tokens) is 4.0x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Llama 4 Maverick is more expensive than Pixtral-12B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 4 Maverick has 387.6B more parameters than Pixtral-12B, making it 3125.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Llama 4 Maverick accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Pixtral-12B's 128,000 tokens. Llama 4 Maverick can generate longer responses up to 1,000,000 tokens, while Pixtral-12B is limited to 8,192 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Llama 4 Maverick and Pixtral-12B support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Llama 4 Maverick
Pixtral-12B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 4 Maverick is licensed under Llama 4 Community License Agreement, while Pixtral-12B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 4 Community License Agreement
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 4 Maverick was released on 2025-04-05, while Pixtral-12B was released on 2024-09-17.
Llama 4 Maverick is 7 months newer than Pixtral-12B.
Apr 5, 2025
1.3 years ago
6mo newerSep 17, 2024
1.9 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Llama 4 Maverick is available from DeepInfra, Novita, Lambda, Groq, Fireworks, Together, Sambanova. Pixtral-12B is available from Mistral AI.
Llama 4 Maverick
Pixtral-12B
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Pixtral-12B
View detailsMistral AI
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 4 Maverick and Pixtral-12B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Llama 4 Maverick vs Pixtral-12B.