ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Qwen3 Max 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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
  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 Qwen3 Max (50) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · 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 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · 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 · Qwen3 Max: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.3-70B-Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.3-70B-InstructQwen3 MaxMistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%496850
Price25%603276
Inputs & features15%252560
Context window10%243724
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 Qwen3 Max vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.3-70B-InstructMetaQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.3142.4 (best)127.5
ECI rank#133 of 148#91 of 148 (best)#132 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.4%72.6% (best)47.5%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics5.1%73.3% (best)5.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.59$1.20$0.229 (best)
Output$0.724$6.00$0.436 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.624$2.40$0.281 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 21 providersOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDllama-3.3-70b-instructqwen3-max—
API providers24 (best)162
ReleasedDec 6, 2024Sep 23, 2025Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Apr 2025Jun 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
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, Qwen3 Max or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Qwen3 Max (50) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (46). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct, Qwen3 Max 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); Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 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 $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (8.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148), Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 127.3 (#133 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 122.6–129.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 47.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, 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, Qwen3 Max and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 Max 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?

Qwen3 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 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, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, 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; Qwen3 Max 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?

Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025; Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct came out Dec 6, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, 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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