Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct vs Mistral Large vs Gemma 2 27B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Large 44, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 43, Gemma 2 27B 35). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MetaLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct
43/100- ECI125.9
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context128K
Mistral AIMistral Large
44/100- ECI122.0
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
GoogleGemma 2 27B
35/100- ECI122.1
- Price$0.65 / $0.65
- Context8K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mistral Large 44/100, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 43/100, Gemma 2 27B 35/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct for raw capability and Gemma 2 27B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityLlama-3.1-70B-InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 · Gemma 2 27B 122.1 · Mistral Large 122.0
- Lowest priceGemma 2 27BGemma 2 27B $0.65 · Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct $0.72 · Mistral Large $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Mistral LargeLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Mistral Large 128,000 · Gemma 2 27B 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral LargeLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct: Text · Mistral Large: Text, PDFs · Gemma 2 27B: Text
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Gemma 2 27BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct | Mistral Large | Gemma 2 27B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 47 | 42 | 42 |
| Price | 25% | 54 | 53 | 56 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 45 | 0 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 43/100 | 44/100 | 35/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMeta | Mistral LargeMistral AI | Gemma 2 27BGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 125.9 (best) | 122.0 | 122.1 |
| ECI rank | #149 of 165 (best) | #153 of 165 | #152 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 44.2% (best) | 38.8% | 36.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 3.6% (best) | 1.9% | 1.4% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.72 | $0.50 (best) | $0.65 |
| Output | $0.72 | $1.50 | $0.65 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.05 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.72 | $0.75 | $0.65 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 8 providers | Official Mistral API | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 102,400 tokens (best) | 2,048 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | mistral-large-latest | — |
| API providers | 8 | 11 (best) | 3 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 | Feb 26, 2024 | Jul 13, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Nov 30, 2024 | Jun 30, 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct$8.64
- Mistral Large$8.00
- Gemma 2 27B$7.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Mistral Large or Gemma 2 27B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mistral Large 44/100, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 43/100, Gemma 2 27B 35/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct for raw capability and Gemma 2 27B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Mistral Large or Gemma 2 27B?
Gemma 2 27B is cheaper at $0.65 input / $0.65 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct costs $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers); Mistral Large costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.65 per million tokens for Gemma 2 27B versus $0.72 for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct (1.1× as much) and $0.75 for Mistral Large (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 125.9 (#149 of 165), Gemma 2 27B 122.1 (#152 of 165) and Mistral Large 122.0 (#153 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (120.8–128.2 vs 115.8–124.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 44.2%, Mistral Large 38.8%, Gemma 2 27B 36.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct 3.6%, Mistral Large 1.9%, Gemma 2 27B 1.4%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Mistral Large and Gemma 2 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Note that Gemma 2 27B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Mistral Large have the largest context windows (128,000 and 128,000 tokens), against 8,192 for Gemma 2 27B. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, Mistral Large up to 102,400, Gemma 2 27B up to 2,048 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct accepts text; Mistral Large accepts text and PDFs; Gemma 2 27B accepts text. Mistral Large handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct and Gemma 2 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Large is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct is the newest, released Jul 23, 2024. Gemma 2 27B came out Jul 13, 2024; Mistral Large came out Feb 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mistral Large Nov 30, 2024, Gemma 2 27B Jun 30, 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.
