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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Ministral 8B Instruct vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 61 to 42 and 42 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 2.3× cheaper per token.

  1. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct
  2. Our pick

    Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    61/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

  3. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI116.6
    • Price$0.152 / $0.167
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
01 — Verdict

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructShared benchmarks: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · 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 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMinistral 8B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%275227
Price25%897288
Inputs & features15%255025
Context window10%2410024
Overall100%42/10061/10042/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Ministral 8B Instruct vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMinistral 8B InstructMistral AILlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMetaLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—129.7 (best)116.6
ECI rank—#126 of 148 (best)#145 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.2%51.8% (best)27.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—7.8% (best)1.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15 (best)$0.225$0.152
Output$0.15 (best)$0.69$0.167
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.15 (best)$0.341$0.156
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 4 providersMedian of 9 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenMistral Research LicenseOpenOpen
API model ID———
API providers149 (best)
ReleasedOct 16, 2024Apr 5, 2025Jul 23, 2024
Knowledge cutoff—Aug 2024Dec 2023
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.

  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Ministral 8B Instruct, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Ministral 8B Instruct, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 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 $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (2.3× 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): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 8B Instruct, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Llama-3.1-8B-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 Ministral 8B Instruct and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Llama-3.1-8B-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 (Mistral Research License), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023.

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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