Claude Haiku 3.5 vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Mistral Large 2.1
Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49, Claude Haiku 3.5 46, Mistral Large 2.1 38). The right pick depends on what you value most.
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3.5
46/100- ECI127.0
- Price$0.80 / $4.00
- Context200K
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
49/100- ECI116.4
- Price$0.06 / $0.08
- Context128K
Mistral AIMistral Large 2.1
38/100- ECI128.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context131K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100, Claude Haiku 3.5 46/100, Mistral Large 2.1 38/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large 2.1 for raw capability, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct on price and Claude Haiku 3.5 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMistral Large 2.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 2.1 128.6 · Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4
- Lowest priceLlama-3.1-8B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.065 · Claude Haiku 3.5 $1.60 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Haiku 3.5Claude Haiku 3.5 200,000 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3.5Claude Haiku 3.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Mistral Large 2.1: Text
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Claude Haiku 3.5 | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Mistral Large 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 48 | 35 | 50 |
| Price | 25% | 38 | 100 | 26 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 60 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 24 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 46/100 | 49/100 | 38/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Haiku 3.5Anthropic | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta | Mistral Large 2.1Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 127.0 | 116.4 | 128.6 (best) |
| ECI rank | #147 of 165 | #162 of 165 | #142 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 38.1% | 27.0% | 51.3% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 4.3% | 1.7% | 7.8% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.80 | $0.06 (best) | $2.00 |
| Output | $4.00 | $0.08 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.60 | $0.065 (best) | $3.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 3 providers | Median of 17 providers | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 4,096 tokens | 16,384 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 | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 4 | 18 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Oct 22, 2024 | Jul 23, 2024 | Nov 18, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jul 31, 2024 | Dec 2023 | Nov 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Haiku 3.5$16.00
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$0.76
- Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Haiku 3.5, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100, Claude Haiku 3.5 46/100, Mistral Large 2.1 38/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large 2.1 for raw capability, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct on price and Claude Haiku 3.5 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 3.5, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Mistral Large 2.1?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.08 output per million tokens (median across 17 API providers). Claude Haiku 3.5 costs $0.80 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers); Mistral Large 2.1 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.065 per million tokens for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct versus $1.60 for Claude Haiku 3.5 (25× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (46× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Mistral Large 2.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 2.1 128.6 (#142 of 165), Claude Haiku 3.5 127.0 (#147 of 165) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 (#162 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (124.3–130.7 vs 121.4–129.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Claude Haiku 3.5 38.1%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Large 2.1 7.8%, Claude Haiku 3.5 4.3%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 3.5, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Large 2.1 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?
Claude Haiku 3.5 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Large 2.1 and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 3.5 up to 8,192, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Haiku 3.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text. Claude Haiku 3.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Mistral Large 2.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Large 2.1 is the newest, released Nov 18, 2024. Claude Haiku 3.5 came out Oct 22, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3.5 Jul 31, 2024, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mistral Large 2.1 Nov 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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