ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Qwen3 8B

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 56 and 55 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.1 24B is 18% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    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. 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

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B
01 — Verdict

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3 8B (56) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 8B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · 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 · Qwen3 8B $0.31 · 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 · Qwen3 8B 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 · Qwen3 8B: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMistral Small 3.1 24BQwen3 8B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%525061
Price25%727674
Inputs & features15%506035
Context window10%1002424
Overall100%62/10055/10056/100
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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Qwen3 8B specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMetaMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)129.7127.5136.2 (best)
ECI rank#126 of 148#132 of 148#113 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions51.8%47.5%56.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.8%5.8%56.1% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.225$0.229$0.18 (best)
Output$0.69$0.436 (best)$0.70
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.341$0.281 (best)$0.31
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 4 providersMedian of 2 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window10,000,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens (best)16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID——qwen3-8b
API providers4 (best)21
ReleasedApr 5, 2025Mar 17, 2025Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Jun 2024Apr 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 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
  • Qwen3 8B$3.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct, Mistral Small 3.1 24B or Qwen3 8B?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3 8B (56) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 8B wins on capability. 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 Qwen3 8B?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen3 8B costs $0.18 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 $0.31 for Qwen3 8B (1.1× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 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 (129.7–138.1 vs 124.8–131.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 8B 56.8%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 8B 56.1%, 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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B and Qwen3 8B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 8B 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 Qwen3 8B 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, Qwen3 8B 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; Qwen3 8B 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?

Qwen3 8B is the newest, released Apr 28, 2025. 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, Qwen3 8B Apr 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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