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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2

Too close to call on our weighted score (Mistral Small 3.2 60, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Mistral Small 3.2 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for raw capability and Mistral Small 3.2 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5655
Price25%6689
Inputs & features15%5050
Context window10%6024
Overall100%58/10060/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMetaMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)132.2 (best)131.7
ECI rank#122 of 148 (best)#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions67.0% (best)49.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics20.6%30.3% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.321$0.10 (best)
Output$0.91$0.30 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.468$0.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 6 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model ID—mistral-small-2506
API providers66
ReleasedApr 5, 2025Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Mar 2025
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 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.2?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Mistral Small 3.2 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for raw capability and Mistral Small 3.2 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.468 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (3.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (128.0–134.1 vs 126.6–133.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Small 3.2 30.3%, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both 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 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025.

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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