Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Gemma 3 27B IT vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62, Gemma 3 27B IT 60, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
62/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
GoogleGemma 3 27B IT
60/100- ECI130.0
- Price$0.08 / $0.20
- Context131K
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62/100, Gemma 3 27B IT 60/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 27B IT for raw capability and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemma 3 27B ITCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 3 27B IT 130.0 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
- Lowest priceGemma 3 27B ITGemma 3 27B IT $0.11 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Gemma 3 27B IT 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · 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 4 Scout 17B Instruct | Gemma 3 27B IT | Mistral Small 3.1 24B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 52 | 53 | 50 |
| Price | 25% | 72 | 95 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 50 | 60 |
| Context window | 10% | 100 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 62/100 | 60/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta | Gemma 3 27B ITGoogle | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 129.7 | 130.0 (best) | 127.5 |
| ECI rank | #126 of 148 | #125 of 148 (best) | #132 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 51.8% (best) | 47.7% | 47.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 7.8% | 22.5% (best) | 5.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.225 | $0.08 (best) | $0.229 |
| Output | $0.69 | $0.20 (best) | $0.436 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.341 | $0.11 (best) | $0.281 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 4 providers | Median of 9 providers | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 10,000,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | 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 | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 4 | 10 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Apr 5, 2025 | Mar 12, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Aug 2024 | 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 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
- Gemma 3 27B IT$1.20
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62/100, Gemma 3 27B IT 60/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 27B IT for raw capability and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, Gemma 3 27B IT or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Gemma 3 27B IT is cheaper at $0.08 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct costs $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.11 per million tokens for Gemma 3 27B IT versus $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (2.6× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (3.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemma 3 27B IT scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 3 27B IT 130.0 (#125 of 148), Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (124.1–132.2 vs 124.8–131.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Gemma 3 27B IT 47.7%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 27B IT 22.5%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama 4 Scout 17B 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?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Gemma 3 27B IT and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, 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 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Gemma 3 27B IT accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025; Gemma 3 27B IT came out Mar 12, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024, 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 Oct 4, 2026.
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