Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B
Mistral Small 3.1 24B comes out ahead, 55 to 46 and 40 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
MetaLlama-3.3-70B-Instruct
46/100- ECI127.3
- Price$0.59 / $0.724
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
40/100- ECI129.0
- Price$1.40 / $5.60
- Context131K
- Our pick
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is our pick
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46) and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen2.5 72B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 · 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 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct $0.624 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct $2.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen2.5 72B Instruct 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 · Qwen2.5 72B Instruct: Text · 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 | Qwen2.5 72B Instruct | Mistral Small 3.1 24B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 49 | 52 | 50 |
| Price | 25% | 60 | 31 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 25 | 60 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 46/100 | 40/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama-3.3-70B-InstructMeta | Qwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 127.3 | 129.0 (best) | 127.5 |
| ECI rank | #133 of 148 | #128 of 148 (best) | #132 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 47.4% | 49.2% (best) | 47.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 5.1% | 8.1% (best) | 5.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.59 | $1.40 | $0.229 (best) |
| Output | $0.724 | $5.60 | $0.436 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.624 | $2.45 | $0.281 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 21 providers | Official Alibaba API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | 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 | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Open |
| API model ID | llama-3.3-70b-instruct | qwen2-5-72b-instruct | — |
| API providers | 24 (best) | 1 | 2 |
| Released | Dec 6, 2024 | Sep 19, 2024 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Apr 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$7.35
- Qwen2.5 72B Instruct$25.20
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46) and Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (40). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen2.5 72B Instruct wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 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). Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct costs $0.59 input / $0.724 output per million tokens (median across 21 API providers; free on Llama); Qwen2.5 72B Instruct costs $1.40 input / $5.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $0.624 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (2.2× as much) and $2.45 for Qwen2.5 72B Instruct (8.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen2.5 72B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 129.0 (#128 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 (123.8–130.7 vs 122.6–129.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 49.2%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 47.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 8.1%, 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, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 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 72B Instruct 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, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 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; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct 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, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct came out Dec 6, 2024; Qwen2.5 72B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Qwen2.5 72B Instruct Apr 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 Oct 4, 2026.
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