Gemma 3 27B IT vs Mistral Small 3.2 vs Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507
Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 comes out ahead, 58 to 51 and 49 on our weighted score.
GoogleGemma 3 27B IT
49/100- ECI129.9
- Price$0.11 / $0.30
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.2
51/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507
58/100- ECI137.3
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context262K
Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 is our pick
Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (51) and Gemma 3 27B IT (49). It leads on capability and context window. 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 3.2 has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityQwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507Shared benchmarks: Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 58.9% · Mistral Small 3.2 39.7% · Gemma 3 27B IT 35.1%
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2 and Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 $0.15 · Gemma 3 27B IT $0.157 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 262,144 · Gemma 3 27B IT 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemma 3 27B IT and Mistral Small 3.2Gemma 3 27B IT: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507: Text
- 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 | Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 35 | 40 | 59 |
| Price | 25% | 84 | 85 | 85 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 50 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 25 | 24 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 49/100 | 51/100 | 58/100 |
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 | Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 129.9 | — | 137.3 (best) |
| ECI rank | #137 of 165 | — | #124 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 47.7% | 49.1% | 55.6% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 22.5% | 30.3% | 62.2% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.11 | $0.10 (best) | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.30 (best) | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.157 | $0.15 (best) | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 16 providers | Official Mistral API | Median of 12 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| 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 | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | — | mistral-small-2506 | — |
| API providers | 17 (best) | 7 | 14 |
| Released | Mar 12, 2025 | Jun 20, 2025 | Jul 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Aug 2024 | Mar 2025 | — |
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
- Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
- Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507$1.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemma 3 27B IT, Mistral Small 3.2 or Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507?
Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (51) and Gemma 3 27B IT (49). It leads on capability and context window. 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 3.2 has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B IT, Mistral Small 3.2 or Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507?
Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 costs $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (median across 12 API providers); Gemma 3 27B IT costs $0.11 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.15 for Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 (1× as much) and $0.157 for Gemma 3 27B IT (1× 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): Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 58.9%, Mistral Small 3.2 39.7% and Gemma 3 27B IT 35.1%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 55.6%, Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%, Gemma 3 27B IT 47.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 62.2%, Mistral Small 3.2 30.3%, Gemma 3 27B IT 22.5%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 27B IT, Mistral Small 3.2 and Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 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?
Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 has the largest context window at 262,144 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, Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 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; Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 accepts text. Gemma 3 27B IT handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights (Apache 2.0), so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 is the newest, released Jul 28, 2025. Mistral Small 3.2 came out Jun 20, 2025; Gemma 3 27B IT came out Mar 12, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 27B IT Aug 2024, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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