Gemma 3 27B IT vs Mistral Small 3.2 vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62, Gemma 3 27B IT 60, Mistral Small 3.2 60). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemma 3 27B IT
60/100- ECI130.0
- Price$0.08 / $0.20
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.2
60/100- ECI131.7
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
62/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62/100, Gemma 3 27B IT 60/100, Mistral Small 3.2 60/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Small 3.2 for raw capability, Gemma 3 27B IT on price and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMistral Small 3.2Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 · Gemma 3 27B IT 130.0 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7
- Lowest priceGemma 3 27B ITGemma 3 27B IT $0.11 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Gemma 3 27B IT 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsGemma 3 27B IT: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Gemma 3 27B IT | Mistral Small 3.2 | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 53 | 55 | 52 |
| Price | 25% | 95 | 89 | 72 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 100 |
| Overall | 100% | 60/100 | 60/100 | 62/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemma 3 27B ITGoogle | Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AI | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 130.0 | 131.7 (best) | 129.7 |
| ECI rank | #125 of 148 | #123 of 148 (best) | #126 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 47.7% | 49.1% | 51.8% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 22.5% | 30.3% (best) | 7.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.08 (best) | $0.10 | $0.225 |
| Output | $0.20 (best) | $0.30 | $0.69 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.11 (best) | $0.15 | $0.341 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 9 providers | Official Mistral API | Median of 4 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 10,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | 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 | Open | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | mistral-small-2506 | — |
| API providers | 10 (best) | 6 | 4 |
| Released | Mar 12, 2025 | Jun 20, 2025 | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Aug 2024 | Mar 2025 | Aug 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 3 27B IT$1.20
- Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
- Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemma 3 27B IT, Mistral Small 3.2 or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62/100, Gemma 3 27B IT 60/100, Mistral Small 3.2 60/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Small 3.2 for raw capability, Gemma 3 27B IT on price and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B IT, Mistral Small 3.2 or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?
Gemma 3 27B IT is cheaper at $0.08 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). Mistral Small 3.2 costs $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct costs $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.11 per million tokens for Gemma 3 27B IT versus $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1.4× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (3.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Mistral Small 3.2 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148), Gemma 3 27B IT 130.0 (#125 of 148) and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (126.6–133.9 vs 124.1–132.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%, Gemma 3 27B IT 47.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Small 3.2 30.3%, Gemma 3 27B IT 22.5%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 27B IT, Mistral Small 3.2 and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Small 3.2 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 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Gemma 3 27B IT and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 27B IT up to 131,072, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemma 3 27B IT accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; Gemma 3 27B IT came out Mar 12, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 27B IT Aug 2024, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, Llama 4 Scout 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.
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