ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Gemma 3 27B IT vs Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Mistral Small 3

Gemma 3 27B IT comes out ahead, 49 to 39 and 33 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3 is 2.7× cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemma 3 27B IT

    Released Mar 12, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI129.9
    • Price$0.11 / $0.30
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 3 27B IT

  2. Meta

    Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct

    Released Dec 6, 2024

    33/100
    • ECI127.3
    • Price$0.59 / $0.753
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3

    Released Jan 30, 2025

    39/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.08
    • Context33K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3
01 — Verdict

Gemma 3 27B IT is our pick

Gemma 3 27B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 49/100 against Mistral Small 3 (39) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (33). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Mistral Small 3 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Mistral Small 3 has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityGemma 3 27B ITShared benchmarks: Gemma 3 27B IT 35.1% · Mistral Small 3 27.0% · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 26.3%
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3Mistral Small 3 $0.058 · Gemma 3 27B IT $0.157 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct $0.631 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemma 3 27B ITGemma 3 27B IT 131,072 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Mistral Small 3 32,768 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 3 27B ITGemma 3 27B IT: Text, Images · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct: Text · Mistral Small 3: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 3 27B ITLlama-3.3-70B-InstructMistral Small 3
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%352627
Price25%8457100
Inputs & features15%50250
Context window10%25240
Overall100%49/10033/10039/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Gemma 3 27B IT vs Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Mistral Small 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 3 27B ITGoogleLlama-3.3-70B-InstructMetaMistral Small 3Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)129.9 (best)127.3—
ECI rank#137 of 165 (best)#146 of 165—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.7% (best)47.4%47.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics22.5% (best)5.1%6.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.11$0.59$0.05 (best)
Output$0.30$0.753$0.08 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.157$0.631$0.058 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 16 providersMedian of 37 providersMedian of 6 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens32,768 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)4,096 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesNo
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID———
API providers1740 (best)6
ReleasedMar 12, 2025Dec 6, 2024Jan 30, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Dec 2023Oct 31, 2023
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.

  • Gemma 3 27B IT$1.69
  • Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct$7.41
  • Mistral Small 3$0.66
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 3 27B IT, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct or Mistral Small 3?

Gemma 3 27B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 49/100 against Mistral Small 3 (39) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (33). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Mistral Small 3 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Mistral Small 3 has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B IT, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct or Mistral Small 3?

Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.08 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). Gemma 3 27B IT costs $0.11 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers); Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct costs $0.59 input / $0.753 output per million tokens (median across 37 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.058 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3 versus $0.157 for Gemma 3 27B IT (2.7× as much) and $0.631 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (11× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025): Gemma 3 27B IT 35.1%, Mistral Small 3 27.0% and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 26.3%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemma 3 27B IT 47.7%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 47.4%, Mistral Small 3 47.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 27B IT 22.5%, Mistral Small 3 6.7%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 5.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 27B IT, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and Mistral Small 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 3 27B IT leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Note that Mistral Small 3 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 27B IT has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and 32,768 for Mistral Small 3. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 27B IT up to 131,072, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, Mistral Small 3 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 3 27B IT accepts text and images; Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct accepts text; Mistral Small 3 accepts text. Gemma 3 27B IT handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Gemma 3 27B IT is the newest, released Mar 12, 2025. Mistral Small 3 came out Jan 30, 2025; Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct came out Dec 6, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 27B IT Aug 2024, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mistral Small 3 Oct 31, 2023.

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.

05 — Keep comparing

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