GPT-4o mini vs Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1
GPT-4o mini comes out ahead, 55 to 43 and 34 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-4o mini
55/100- ECI126.5
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context128K
MetaLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct
43/100- ECI125.9
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context128K
Mistral AIMixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1
34/100- ECI118.4
- Price$0.444 / $0.579
- Context33K
GPT-4o mini is our pick
GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (43) and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 (34). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-4o miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4o mini 126.5 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 · Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 118.4
- Lowest priceGPT-4o miniGPT-4o mini $0.263 · Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 $0.478 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct $0.72 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-4o mini and Llama-3.1-70B-InstructGPT-4o mini 128,000 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-4o miniGPT-4o mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct: Text · Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1: Text
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1Publishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | GPT-4o mini | Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct | Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 47 | 47 | 38 |
| Price | 25% | 74 | 54 | 62 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 25 | 0 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 55/100 | 43/100 | 34/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-4o miniOpenAI | Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMeta | Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 126.5 (best) | 125.9 | 118.4 |
| ECI rank | #148 of 165 (best) | #149 of 165 | #160 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 37.7% | 44.2% (best) | 30.6% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 0.7% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 6.9% (best) | 3.6% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 8.3% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 (best) | $0.72 | $0.444 |
| Output | $0.60 | $0.72 | $0.579 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.075 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.263 (best) | $0.72 | $0.478 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Median of 8 providers | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 4,096 tokens | 32,768 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | gpt-4o-mini | — | — |
| API providers | 26 (best) | 8 | 2 |
| Released | Jul 18, 2024 | Jul 23, 2024 | Dec 11, 2023 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 2023 | Dec 2023 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GPT-4o mini$2.70
- Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct$8.64
- Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1$5.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-4o mini, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct or Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1?
GPT-4o mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (43) and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 (34). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4o mini, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct or Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1?
GPT-4o mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 costs $0.444 input / $0.579 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.263 per million tokens for GPT-4o mini versus $0.478 for Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 (1.8× as much) and $0.72 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (2.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-4o mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4o mini 126.5 (#148 of 165), Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 (#149 of 165) and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 118.4 (#160 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (120.5–128.6 vs 120.8–128.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%, GPT-4o mini 37.7%, Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 30.6%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4o mini, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 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. Note that Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-4o mini and Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct have the largest context windows (128,000 and 128,000 tokens), against 32,768 for Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1. Maximum output per response: GPT-4o mini up to 16,384, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-4o mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct accepts text; Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 accepts text. GPT-4o mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; GPT-4o mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct is the newest, released Jul 23, 2024. GPT-4o mini came out Jul 18, 2024; Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4o mini Sep 2023, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct Dec 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.
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