Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Gemma 3 27B IT vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B
Gemma 3 27B IT comes out ahead, 57 to 51 and 45 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
MetaLlama-3.3-70B-Instruct
45/100- ECI127.3
- Price$0.59 / $0.753
- Context128K
- Our pick
GoogleGemma 3 27B IT
57/100- ECI129.9
- Price$0.11 / $0.30
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
51/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.351 / $0.555
- Context128K
Gemma 3 27B IT is our pick
Gemma 3 27B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (51) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (45). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemma 3 27B ITCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 3 27B IT 129.9 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 127.3
- Lowest priceGemma 3 27B ITGemma 3 27B IT $0.157 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.402 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct $0.631 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemma 3 27B ITGemma 3 27B IT 131,072 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemma 3 27B IT and Mistral Small 3.1 24BLlama-3.3-70B-Instruct: Text · Gemma 3 27B IT: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct | Gemma 3 27B IT | Mistral Small 3.1 24B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 49 | 52 | 49 |
| Price | 25% | 57 | 84 | 66 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 50 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 25 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 45/100 | 57/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.3-70B-InstructMeta | Gemma 3 27B ITGoogle | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 127.3 | 129.9 (best) | 127.5 |
| ECI rank | #146 of 165 | #137 of 165 (best) | #145 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 47.4% | 47.7% (best) | 47.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 5.1% | 22.5% (best) | 5.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.59 | $0.11 (best) | $0.351 |
| Output | $0.753 | $0.30 (best) | $0.555 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.631 | $0.157 (best) | $0.402 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 37 providers | Median of 16 providers | Median of 9 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | 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 | Open | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 40 (best) | 17 | 9 |
| Released | Dec 6, 2024 | Mar 12, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Aug 2024 | Jun 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-3.3-70B-Instruct$7.41
- Gemma 3 27B IT$1.69
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$4.62
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Gemma 3 27B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (51) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (45). It leads on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Gemma 3 27B IT is cheaper at $0.11 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $0.351 input / $0.555 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers); Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct costs $0.59 input / $0.753 output per million tokens (median across 37 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.157 per million tokens for Gemma 3 27B IT versus $0.402 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (2.6× as much) and $0.631 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemma 3 27B IT scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 3 27B IT 129.9 (#137 of 165), Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#145 of 165) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 127.3 (#146 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (124.2–132.1 vs 122.7–129.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemma 3 27B IT 47.7%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 47.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 27B IT 22.5%, 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, Gemma 3 27B IT and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 3 27B IT 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?
Gemma 3 27B IT 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, Gemma 3 27B IT up to 131,072, 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; Gemma 3 27B IT accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. Gemma 3 27B IT handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. Gemma 3 27B IT came out Mar 12, 2025; Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct came out Dec 6, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Gemma 3 27B IT Aug 2024, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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