ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Mistral Large vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49, Mistral Large 44). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI116.4
    • Price$0.06 / $0.08
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large

    Released Feb 26, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI122.0
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Large

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen2.5 7B Instruct

    Released Sep 19, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI118.5
    • Price$0.05 / $0.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100, Mistral Large 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large for raw capability, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct on price and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMistral LargeCapabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 122.0 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4
  • Lowest priceQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen2.5 7B Instruct $0.063 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.065 · Mistral Large $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen2.5 7B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 · Mistral Large 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral LargeLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Mistral Large: Text, PDFs · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 7B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMistral LargeQwen2.5 7B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%354238
Price25%10053100
Inputs & features15%254525
Context window10%242425
Overall100%49/10044/10050/100
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 Mistral Large vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaMistral LargeMistral AIQwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.4122.0 (best)118.5
ECI rank#162 of 165#153 of 165 (best)#159 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0%38.8% (best)35.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%1.9%2.5% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.06$0.50$0.05 (best)
Output$0.08 (best)$1.50$0.10
Cached input—$0.05—
Blended (3:1)$0.065$0.75$0.063 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 17 providersOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 3 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Max output4,096 tokens102,400 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpenApache 2.0
API model ID—mistral-large-latest—
API providers18 (best)114
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Feb 26, 2024Sep 19, 2024
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Nov 30, 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$0.76
  • Mistral Large$8.00
  • Qwen2.5 7B Instruct$0.70
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Mistral Large or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 50/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 49/100, Mistral Large 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large for raw capability, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct on price and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Mistral Large or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.06 input / $0.08 output per million tokens (median across 17 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 $0.063 per million tokens for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct versus $0.065 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× as much) and $0.75 for Mistral Large (12× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Mistral Large scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 122.0 (#153 of 165), Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 (#159 of 165) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 (#162 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (115.7–124.8 vs 110.6–121.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Large 38.8%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 35.5%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 2.5%, Mistral Large 1.9%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Mistral Large and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Large 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?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and 128,000 for Mistral Large. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Mistral Large up to 102,400, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Mistral Large accepts text and PDFs; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct accepts text. Mistral Large handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Mistral Large is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen2.5 7B Instruct is the newest, released Sep 19, 2024. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; Mistral Large came out Feb 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mistral Large Nov 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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