Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs DeepSeek-V3
Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55, DeepSeek-V3 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MetaLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
58/100- ECI132.2
- Price$0.321 / $0.91
- Context1M
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
DeepSeekDeepSeek-V3
50/100- ECI132.3
- Price$0.32 / $1.10
- Context131K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, DeepSeek-V3 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3 for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityDeepSeek-V3Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · DeepSeek-V3 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · DeepSeek-V3: Text
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct | Mistral Small 3.1 24B | DeepSeek-V3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 56 | 50 | 56 |
| Price | 25% | 66 | 76 | 64 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 60 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 58/100 | 55/100 | 50/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI | DeepSeek-V3DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 132.2 | 127.5 | 132.3 (best) |
| ECI rank | #122 of 148 | #132 of 148 | #121 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 67.0% (best) | 47.5% | 56.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 20.6% (best) | 5.8% | 15.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.321 | $0.229 (best) | $0.32 |
| Output | $0.91 | $0.436 (best) | $1.10 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.468 | $0.281 (best) | $0.515 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 6 providers | Median of 2 providers | Median of 5 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | OpenDeepSeek Model License |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 6 (best) | 2 | 5 |
| Released | Apr 5, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 | Dec 26, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 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 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
- DeepSeek-V3$5.40
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or DeepSeek-V3?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100, DeepSeek-V3 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek-V3 for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or DeepSeek-V3?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers); DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.32 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). 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 $0.468 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (1.7× as much) and $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (1.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
DeepSeek-V3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148), Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (127.5–135.5 vs 128.0–134.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, DeepSeek-V3 56.5%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%, DeepSeek-V3 15.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B and DeepSeek-V3 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?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3 and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; DeepSeek-V3 accepts text. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025; DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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 Oct 4, 2026.
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