Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Qwen Turbo
Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50, Qwen Turbo 48, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
50/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
44/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Turbo
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.05 / $0.20
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for raw capability and Qwen Turbo on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructShared benchmarks: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8% · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7% · Qwen Turbo 24.0%
- Lowest priceQwen TurboQwen Turbo $0.087 · 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 · Qwen Turbo 1,000,000 · 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 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Qwen Turbo: Text
- Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct | Mistral Small 3.1 24B | Qwen Turbo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 30 | 27 | 24 |
| Price | 25% | 72 | 76 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 60 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 100 | 24 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 44/100 | 48/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI | Qwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 129.7 (best) | 127.5 | — |
| ECI rank | #126 of 148 (best) | #132 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 51.8% (best) | 47.5% | 41.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 7.8% (best) | 5.8% | 6.1% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.225 | $0.229 | $0.05 (best) |
| Output | $0.69 | $0.436 | $0.20 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.341 | $0.281 | $0.087 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 4 providers | Median of 2 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 10,000,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 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 | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | qwen-turbo |
| API providers | 4 (best) | 2 | 3 |
| Released | Apr 5, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 | Nov 1, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Aug 2024 | Jun 2024 | Apr 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
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
- Qwen Turbo$0.90
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Qwen Turbo?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for raw capability and Qwen Turbo on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Qwen Turbo?
Qwen Turbo is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $0.087 per million tokens for Qwen Turbo versus $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (3.2× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (3.9× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7% and Qwen Turbo 24.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Qwen Turbo 41.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, Qwen Turbo 6.1%, 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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B and Qwen Turbo yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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 1,000,000 for Qwen Turbo and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, Qwen Turbo up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; Qwen Turbo accepts text. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen Turbo is proprietary.
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; Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, Qwen Turbo Apr 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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