DeepSeek-V3 vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 58 to 53 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
DeepSeekDeepSeek-V3
50/100- ECI132.3
- Price$0.32 / $1.10
- Context131K
- Our pick
MetaLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
58/100- ECI132.2
- Price$0.321 / $0.91
- Context1M
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is our pick
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53) and DeepSeek-V3 (50). It leads on price and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMistral Medium 3Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3 134.1 · DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2
- Lowest priceLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · DeepSeek-V3 131,072 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Medium 3DeepSeek-V3: Text · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Mistral Medium 3: Text, Images
- Self-hostingDeepSeek-V3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (DeepSeek Model License)
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek-V3 | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct | Mistral Medium 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 56 | 56 | 58 |
| Price | 25% | 64 | 66 | 54 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 50 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 60 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 58/100 | 53/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | DeepSeek-V3DeepSeek | Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 132.3 | 132.2 | 134.1 (best) |
| ECI rank | #121 of 148 | #122 of 148 | #117 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 56.5% | 67.0% (best) | 59.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 15.8% | 20.6% | 32.2% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.32 (best) | $0.321 | $0.40 |
| Output | $1.10 | $0.91 (best) | $2.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.515 | $0.468 (best) | $0.80 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 5 providers | Median of 6 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 16,384 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenDeepSeek Model License | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | mistral-medium-2505 |
| API providers | 5 | 6 (best) | 5 |
| Released | Dec 26, 2024 | Apr 5, 2025 | May 7, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Aug 2024 | May 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- DeepSeek-V3$5.40
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
- Mistral Medium 3$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek-V3, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53) and DeepSeek-V3 (50). It leads on price and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.32 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.468 per million tokens for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct versus $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (1.1× as much) and $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (1.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Mistral Medium 3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148), DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.5–135.6 vs 127.5–135.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, DeepSeek-V3 56.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Medium 3 32.2%, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%, DeepSeek-V3 15.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-V3, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Medium 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Medium 3 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3 and 131,072 for Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
DeepSeek-V3 accepts text; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek-V3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct publishes its weights (DeepSeek Model License) and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024, Mistral Medium 3 May 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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