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Mercury 3 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 3.7. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 2.8x cheaper per token.

Inception · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 3.7, ranking #98 overall.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mercury 3 wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is roughly 2.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Mercury 3 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 Mercury 3

  • overall performance matters — it scores 36.1 and ranks #98 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 2.8x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Mercury 3
Inception
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Mistral AI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
36.1
#98
3.7
#328
Reasoning
34.8
#103
3.3
#325
Coding
21.5
#105
4.5
#228
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
$0.10 / M
$0.05 / M
Output price
$0.35 / M
$0.08 / M
Context window
1,000,000
32,768

Individual benchmarks

12 reported for Mercury 3 · 8 for Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

1 shared

Mercury 3 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Mercury 3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens) is 2.0x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.05/1M tokens).

For output processing, Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens) is 4.4x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.08/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Mercury 3 is more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com
Inception
Mercury 3
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.35
Best providerInception
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input tokens$0.05
Output tokens$0.08
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Mercury 3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,768 tokens. Mercury 3 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is limited to 32,768 tokens.

Inception
Mercury 3
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input32,768 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mercury 3 is licensed under a proprietary 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.

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.

Mercury 3 is 21 months newer than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

0 days ago

1.7yr newer
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Jan 30, 2025

1.7 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Mercury 3'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 Mercury 3's cutoff date.

Mercury 3

—

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Oct 2023

Provider Availability

Mercury 3 is available from Inception. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI.

Mercury 3

inception logo
Inception
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.35/1M

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.05/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.08/1M
mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.30/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mercury 3 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mercury 3
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Mercury 3 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Which is better, Mercury 3 or Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 3.7. Mercury 3 is made by Inception and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Mercury 3 compare to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct scores Arena Hard: 87.6%, HumanEval: 84.8%, MT-Bench: 83.5%, IFEval: 82.9%, MATH: 70.6%.

Is Mercury 3 cheaper than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 2.0x cheaper for input tokens. Mercury 3 costs $0.10/M input and $0.35/M output via inception. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct costs $0.05/M input and $0.08/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Mercury 3 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mercury 3 supports 1.0M tokens and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct supports 33K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Mercury 3 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (36.1 vs 3.7), context window (1.0M vs 33K), input pricing ($0.10 vs $0.05/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mercury 3 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mercury 3 is developed by Inception and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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