Model Comparison

Mistral Small 3 24B Base vs Mistral Small 3 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Mistral Small 3 24B Base vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct — which is better?

Mistral Small 3 24B Base (by Mistral AI) 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.

Mistral Small 3 24B Base outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MMLU-Pro). Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Base if…

  • you are already invested in the Mistral AI ecosystem

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Mistral Small 3 24B Base outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MATH, MMLU-Pro).

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed Jun 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

400.0M diff

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has 0.4B more parameters than Mistral Small 3 24B Base, making it 1.7% larger.

Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
23.6Bparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
24.0Bparameters
23.6B
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
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).

Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input32,000 tokens
Output32,000 tokens
Wed Jun 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Mistral Small 3 24B Base supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct does not.

Mistral Small 3 24B Base can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Both models were released on 2025-01-30.

They likely represent similar generations of model development.

Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Jan 30, 2025

1.4 years ago

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Jan 30, 2025

1.4 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Both models have the same knowledge cutoff date of 2023-10-01.

They should have similar awareness of historical events and information up to this date.

Mistral Small 3 24B Base

Oct 2023

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Oct 2023

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Mistral AI
Supports multimodal inputs
Mistral AI
Larger context window (32,000 tokens)
Higher GPQA score (45.3% vs 34.4%)
Higher MATH score (70.6% vs 46.0%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (66.3% vs 54.4%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Base
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

FAQ

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

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

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Mistral Small 3 24B Base is made by Mistral AI 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 Mistral Small 3 24B Base compare to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

Mistral Small 3 24B Base scores ARC-C: 91.3%, GSM8k: 80.7%, MMLU: 80.7%, TriviaQA: 80.3%, MBPP: 69.6%. 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 Mistral Small 3 24B Base and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mistral Small 3 24B Base 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 Mistral Small 3 24B Base and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

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