Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 55 and 44 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.1 24B is 18% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
62/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
44/100- ECI118.5
- Price$0.175 / $0.70
- Context131K
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55) and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (44). It leads on capability and context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct $0.306 · 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 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 131,072 · 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 · Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct | Mistral Small 3.1 24B | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 52 | 50 | 38 |
| Price | 25% | 72 | 76 | 74 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 60 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 100 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 62/100 | 55/100 | 44/100 |
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 | Qwen2.5 7B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 129.7 (best) | 127.5 | 118.5 |
| ECI rank | #126 of 148 (best) | #132 of 148 | #141 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 51.8% (best) | 47.5% | 35.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 7.8% (best) | 5.8% | 2.5% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.225 | $0.229 | $0.175 (best) |
| Output | $0.69 | $0.436 (best) | $0.70 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.341 | $0.281 (best) | $0.306 |
| 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 | 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 | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | qwen2-5-7b-instruct |
| API providers | 4 (best) | 2 | 1 |
| Released | Apr 5, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 | Sep 19, 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
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct$3.15
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55) and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (44). It leads on capability and context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Qwen2.5 7B Instruct?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen2.5 7B Instruct costs $0.175 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); 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 $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $0.306 for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct (1.1× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148), Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148) and Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 118.5 (#141 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (124.8–131.4 vs 122.6–129.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 35.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 5.8%, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 2.5%.
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 Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 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 131,072 for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 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, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct up to 8,192 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; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct accepts text. 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?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct came out Sep 19, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct 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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