ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mixtral 8x7B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Ministral 8B Instruct 42, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 42, Mixtral 8x7B 33). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI116.6
    • Price$0.152 / $0.167
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct

  3. Mistral AI

    Mixtral 8x7B

    Released Dec 11, 2023

    33/100
    • ECI118.5
    • Price$0.70 / $0.70
    • Context32K
    Full specs Remove Mixtral 8x7B
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Ministral 8B Instruct 42/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 42/100, Mixtral 8x7B 33/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mixtral 8x7B for raw capability, Ministral 8B Instruct on price and Ministral 8B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityMixtral 8x7BShared benchmarks: Mixtral 8x7B 30.6% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Mixtral 8x7B $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 · Mixtral 8x7B 32,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Mixtral 8x7B: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMinistral 8B InstructMixtral 8x7B
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%272731
Price25%888957
Inputs & features15%252525
Context window10%24240
Overall100%42/10042/10033/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mixtral 8x7B specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaMinistral 8B InstructMistral AIMixtral 8x7BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.6—118.5 (best)
ECI rank#145 of 148—#142 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0%27.2%30.6% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.152$0.15 (best)$0.70
Output$0.167$0.15 (best)$0.70
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.156$0.15 (best)$0.70
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)32,000 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens8,192 tokens32,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model ID——open-mixtral-8x7b
API providers9 (best)11
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Oct 16, 2024Dec 11, 2023
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023—Jan 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Mixtral 8x7B$8.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mixtral 8x7B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Ministral 8B Instruct 42/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 42/100, Mixtral 8x7B 33/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mixtral 8x7B for raw capability, Ministral 8B Instruct on price and Ministral 8B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mixtral 8x7B?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers); Mixtral 8x7B costs $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× as much) and $0.70 for Mixtral 8x7B (4.7× 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): Mixtral 8x7B 30.6%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mixtral 8x7B 30.6%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Ministral 8B Instruct and Mixtral 8x7B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mixtral 8x7B 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?

Ministral 8B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and 32,000 for Mixtral 8x7B. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Mixtral 8x7B up to 32,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Mixtral 8x7B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (Mistral Research License), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Ministral 8B Instruct is the newest, released Oct 16, 2024. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; Mixtral 8x7B came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mixtral 8x7B Jan 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons