Gemma 2 27B vs Mistral Large vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct
Mistral Large comes out ahead, 44 to 35 and 34 on our weighted score, though Gemma 2 27B is 13% cheaper per token.
GoogleGemma 2 27B
35/100- ECI122.1
- Price$0.65 / $0.65
- Context8K
- Our pick
Mistral AIMistral Large
44/100- ECI122.0
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
- Mistral AI
Mixtral 8x22B Instruct
34/100- ECI122.0
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context66K
Mistral Large is our pick
Mistral Large is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Gemma 2 27B (35) and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct (34). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Gemma 2 27B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemma 2 27BCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 2 27B 122.1 · Mistral Large 122.0 · Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 122.0
- Lowest priceGemma 2 27BGemma 2 27B $0.65 · Mistral Large $0.75 · Mixtral 8x22B Instruct $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMistral LargeMistral Large 128,000 · Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 65,536 · Gemma 2 27B 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Large and Mixtral 8x22B InstructGemma 2 27B: Text · Mistral Large: Text, PDFs · Mixtral 8x22B Instruct: Text, PDFs
- Self-hostingGemma 2 27B and Mixtral 8x22B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemma 2 27B | Mistral Large | Mixtral 8x22B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Price | 25% | 56 | 53 | 26 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 0 | 45 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 0 | 24 | 12 |
| Overall | 100% | 35/100 | 44/100 | 34/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemma 2 27BGoogle | Mistral LargeMistral AI | Mixtral 8x22B InstructMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 122.1 (best) | 122.0 | 122.0 |
| ECI rank | #152 of 165 (best) | #153 of 165 | #155 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 36.5% | 38.8% (best) | 34.1% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 1.4% | 1.9% (best) | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.65 | $0.50 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $0.65 (best) | $1.50 | $6.00 |
| Cached input | — | $0.05 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.65 (best) | $0.75 | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 3 providers | Official Mistral API | Median of 5 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 8,192 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Max output | 2,048 tokens | 102,400 tokens (best) | 52,428 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | mistral-large-latest | — |
| API providers | 3 | 11 (best) | 5 |
| Released | Jul 13, 2024 | Feb 26, 2024 | Apr 17, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 30, 2024 | Nov 30, 2024 | Jan 31, 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemma 2 27B$7.80
- Mistral Large$8.00
- Mixtral 8x22B Instruct$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemma 2 27B, Mistral Large or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?
Mistral Large is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Gemma 2 27B (35) and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct (34). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Gemma 2 27B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 2 27B, Mistral Large or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?
Gemma 2 27B is cheaper at $0.65 input / $0.65 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Mistral Large costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Mixtral 8x22B Instruct costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.65 per million tokens for Gemma 2 27B versus $0.75 for Mistral Large (1.2× as much) and $3.00 for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct (4.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemma 2 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 2 27B 122.1 (#152 of 165), Mistral Large 122.0 (#153 of 165) and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 122.0 (#155 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (115.8–124.1 vs 115.7–124.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Large 38.8%, Gemma 2 27B 36.5%, Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 34.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 2 27B, Mistral Large and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 2 27B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Note that Gemma 2 27B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Mistral Large has the largest context window at 128,000 tokens, against 65,536 for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct and 8,192 for Gemma 2 27B. Maximum output per response: Gemma 2 27B up to 2,048, Mistral Large up to 102,400, Mixtral 8x22B Instruct up to 52,428 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemma 2 27B accepts text; Mistral Large accepts text and PDFs; Mixtral 8x22B Instruct accepts text and PDFs. Mistral Large handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Gemma 2 27B and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Large is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemma 2 27B is the newest, released Jul 13, 2024. Mixtral 8x22B Instruct came out Apr 17, 2024; Mistral Large came out Feb 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 2 27B Jun 30, 2024, Mistral Large Nov 30, 2024, Mixtral 8x22B Instruct Jan 31, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
