Mistral Large vs Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 vs Gemma 2 27B

Mistral Large is the better all-round choice, scoring 44/100 against Gemma 2 27B (35) and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 (34). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 is cheaper at $0.444 input / $0.579 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Gemma 2 27B costs $0.65 input / $0.65 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers); Mistral Large costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.478 per million tokens for Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 versus $0.65 for Gemma 2 27B (1.4× as much) and $0.75 for Mistral Large (1.6× as much).

Gemma 2 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 2 27B 122.1 (#152 of 165), Mistral Large 122.0 (#153 of 165) and Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 118.4 (#160 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (115.8–124.1 vs 115.7–124.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Large 38.8%, Gemma 2 27B 36.5%, Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 30.6%.

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Large, Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 and Gemma 2 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 2 27B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Note that Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 and Gemma 2 27B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Mistral Large has the largest context window at 128,000 tokens, against 32,768 for Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 and 8,192 for Gemma 2 27B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Large up to 102,400, Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 up to 32,768, Gemma 2 27B up to 2,048 tokens.

Mistral Large accepts text and PDFs; Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 accepts text; Gemma 2 27B accepts text. Mistral Large handles the widest range of inputs.

Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 and Gemma 2 27B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Mistral Large is proprietary.

Gemma 2 27B is the newest, released Jul 13, 2024. Mistral Large came out Feb 26, 2024; Mixtral 8x7B Instruct v0.1 came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Large Nov 30, 2024, Gemma 2 27B Jun 30, 2024.

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.