Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3
Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 42 to 32 and 22 on our weighted score, though Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is 7.7× cheaper per token.
Mistral AIMistral 7B Instruct v0.3
22/100- ECI109.0
- Price—
- Context33K
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
32/100- ECI116.4
- Price$0.06 / $0.08
- Context128K
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3
42/100- ECI118.8
- Price$0.25 / $1.25
- Context200K
Claude Haiku 3 is our pick
Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 42/100 against Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (32) and Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 (22). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%.
- CapabilityClaude Haiku 3Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 3 118.8 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 · Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 109.0
- Lowest priceLlama-3.1-8B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.065 · Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 unpriced
- Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 · Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3: Text · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingMistral 7B Instruct v0.3 and Llama-3.1-8B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Claude Haiku 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 67% | 26 | 35 | 38 |
| Inputs & features | 20% | 25 | 25 | 60 |
| Context window | 13% | 0 | 24 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 22/100 | 32/100 | 42/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3Mistral AI | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta | Claude Haiku 3Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 109.0 | 116.4 | 118.8 (best) |
| ECI rank | #164 of 165 | #162 of 165 | #156 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 15.2% | 27.0% | 36.3% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 0.3% | 1.7% | 1.8% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | $0.06 (best) | $0.25 |
| Output | — | $0.08 (best) | $1.25 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | — | $0.065 (best) | $0.50 |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Median of 17 providers | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 32,768 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache 2.0 | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 1 | 18 (best) | 3 |
| Released | May 22, 2024 | Jul 23, 2024 | Mar 13, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Dec 2023 | Aug 31, 2023 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3—
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$0.76
- Claude Haiku 3$5.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Claude Haiku 3?
Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 42/100 against Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (32) and Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 (22). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Claude Haiku 3?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is cheaper at $0.06 input / $0.08 output per million tokens (median across 17 API providers). Claude Haiku 3 costs $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.065 per million tokens for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct versus $0.50 for Claude Haiku 3 (7.7× as much). Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Haiku 3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 3 118.8 (#156 of 165), Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.4 (#162 of 165) and Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 109.0 (#164 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (111.7–121.4 vs 107.0–121.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 15.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Haiku 3 1.8%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 1.7%, Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 0.3%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Claude Haiku 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 3 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?
Claude Haiku 3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and 32,768 for Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3. Maximum output per response: Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 up to 32,768, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 accepts text; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is the newest, released Jul 23, 2024. Mistral 7B Instruct v0.3 came out May 22, 2024; Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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