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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-V3 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55, DeepSeek-V3 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3

    Released Dec 26, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI132.3
    • Price$0.32 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

  3. Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, DeepSeek-V3 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3 for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityDeepSeek-V3Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · DeepSeek-V3 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.1 24B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructDeepSeek-V3: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-V3Mistral Small 3.1 24BLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%565056
Price25%647666
Inputs & features15%256050
Context window10%242460
Overall100%50/10055/10058/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

DeepSeek-V3 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-V3DeepSeekMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AILlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)132.3 (best)127.5132.2
ECI rank#121 of 148 (best)#132 of 148#122 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.5%47.5%67.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics15.8%5.8%20.6% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.32$0.229 (best)$0.321
Output$1.10$0.436 (best)$0.91
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.515$0.281 (best)$0.468
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 5 providersMedian of 2 providersMedian of 6 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens128,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenDeepSeek Model LicenseOpenOpen
API model ID———
API providers526 (best)
ReleasedDec 26, 2024Mar 17, 2025Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jun 2024Aug 2024
03 — Cost

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
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
  • Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-V3, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, DeepSeek-V3 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3 for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $0.468 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (1.7× as much) and $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

DeepSeek-V3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148), Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (127.5–135.5 vs 128.0–134.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, DeepSeek-V3 56.5%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%, DeepSeek-V3 15.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-V3, Mistral Small 3.1 24B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek-V3 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 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek-V3 accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.1 24B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (DeepSeek Model License), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025; DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024.

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.

05 — Keep comparing

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