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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs DeepSeek-V3 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

Mistral Small 3.1 24B comes out ahead, 55 to 50 and 46 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct

    Released Dec 6, 2024

    46/100
    • ECI127.3
    • Price$0.59 / $0.724
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct

  2. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3

    Released Dec 26, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI132.3
    • Price$0.32 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3
  3. Our pick

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B
01 — Verdict

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is our pick

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against DeepSeek-V3 (50) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46). It leads on price and inputs & features. DeepSeek-V3 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityDeepSeek-V3Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 127.3
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct $0.624 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextDeepSeek-V3DeepSeek-V3 131,072 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.1 24BLlama-3.3-70B-Instruct: Text · DeepSeek-V3: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.3-70B-InstructDeepSeek-V3Mistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%495650
Price25%606476
Inputs & features15%252560
Context window10%242424
Overall100%46/10050/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs DeepSeek-V3 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.3-70B-InstructMetaDeepSeek-V3DeepSeekMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.3132.3 (best)127.5
ECI rank#133 of 148#121 of 148 (best)#132 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.4%56.5% (best)47.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics5.1%15.8% (best)5.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.59$0.32$0.229 (best)
Output$0.724$1.10$0.436 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.624$0.515$0.281 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 21 providersMedian of 5 providersMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenDeepSeek Model LicenseOpen
API model IDllama-3.3-70b-instruct——
API providers24 (best)52
ReleasedDec 6, 2024Dec 26, 2024Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023—Jun 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-3.3-70B-Instruct$7.35
  • DeepSeek-V3$5.40
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, DeepSeek-V3 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against DeepSeek-V3 (50) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46). It leads on price and inputs & features. DeepSeek-V3 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, DeepSeek-V3 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.32 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct costs $0.59 input / $0.724 output per million tokens (median across 21 API providers; free on Llama). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (1.8× as much) and $0.624 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (2.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

DeepSeek-V3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148), Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 127.3 (#133 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (127.5–135.5 vs 122.6–129.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — DeepSeek-V3 56.5%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 47.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — DeepSeek-V3 15.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 5.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, DeepSeek-V3 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek-V3 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?

DeepSeek-V3 has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct accepts text; DeepSeek-V3 accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.1 24B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

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

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024; Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct came out Dec 6, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 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

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