ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs MiniMax-M2.5 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62, MiniMax-M2.5 61, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    62/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

  2. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M2.5

    Released Feb 12, 2026

    61/100
    • ECI146.7
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M2.5

  3. 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

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62/100, MiniMax-M2.5 61/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2.5 for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMiniMax-M2.5Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · MiniMax-M2.5 $0.525 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · MiniMax-M2.5 204,800 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · MiniMax-M2.5: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMiniMax-M2.5Mistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%527450
Price25%726376
Inputs & features15%503560
Context window10%1003224
Overall100%62/10061/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs MiniMax-M2.5 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMetaMiniMax-M2.5MiniMaxMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)129.7146.7 (best)127.5
ECI rank#126 of 148#66 of 148 (best)#132 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions51.8% (best)—47.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.8% (best)—5.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.225 (best)$0.30$0.229
Output$0.69$1.20$0.436 (best)
Cached input—$0.03—
Blended (3:1)$0.341$0.525$0.281 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 4 providersOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window10,000,000 tokens (best)204,800 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens131,072 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID—MiniMax-M2.5—
API providers421 (best)2
ReleasedApr 5, 2025Feb 12, 2026Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024—Jun 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 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
  • MiniMax-M2.5$5.40
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, MiniMax-M2.5 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 62/100, MiniMax-M2.5 61/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 55/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2.5 for raw capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B on price 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, MiniMax-M2.5 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 4 Scout 17B Instruct costs $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers); MiniMax-M2.5 costs $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) 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 $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (1.2× as much) and $0.525 for MiniMax-M2.5 (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

MiniMax-M2.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.5 146.7 (#66 of 148), Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (142.3–147.9 vs 124.8–131.4), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, MiniMax-M2.5 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, MiniMax-M2.5 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 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.5 and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, MiniMax-M2.5 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; MiniMax-M2.5 accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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?

MiniMax-M2.5 is the newest, released Feb 12, 2026. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Scout 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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