ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

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

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 55 and 50 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 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · 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 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · 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 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMistral Small 3.1 24BQwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%525068
Price25%727632
Inputs & features15%506025
Context window10%1002437
Overall100%62/10055/10050/100
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 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMetaMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)129.7127.5142.4 (best)
ECI rank#126 of 148#132 of 148#91 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions51.8%47.5%72.6% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——19.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.8%5.8%73.3% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——48.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.225 (best)$0.229$1.20
Output$0.69$0.436 (best)$6.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.341$0.281 (best)$2.40
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 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens16,384 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model ID——qwen3-max
API providers4216 (best)
ReleasedApr 5, 2025Mar 17, 2025Sep 23, 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 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max 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 Max?

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); Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (8.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 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 (140.0–144.6 vs 124.8–131.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, 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 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 Max 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 262,144 for Qwen3 Max 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 Max up to 65,536 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 Max 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; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 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 Max 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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