GPT-4o mini vs Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Mixtral 8x22B

GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (44) and Mixtral 8x22B (33). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

GPT-4o mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); Mixtral 8x22B costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.263 per million tokens for GPT-4o mini versus $0.72 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (2.7× as much) and $3.00 for Mixtral 8x22B (11× as much).

GPT-4o mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4o mini 126.6 (#135 of 148), Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 (#136 of 148) and Mixtral 8x22B 122.0 (#139 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (120.5–128.5 vs 121.0–128.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%, Mixtral 8x22B 34.1%.

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4o mini, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Mixtral 8x22B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-4o mini leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

GPT-4o mini and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct have the largest context windows (128,000 and 128,000 tokens), against 64,000 for Mixtral 8x22B. Maximum output per response: GPT-4o mini up to 16,384, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, Mixtral 8x22B up to 64,000 tokens.

GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct accepts text; Mixtral 8x22B accepts text. GPT-4o mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Mixtral 8x22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini is proprietary.

Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct is the newest, released Jul 23, 2024. GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024; Mixtral 8x22B came out Apr 17, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4o mini Sep 2023, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mixtral 8x22B Apr 2024.

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.