Mistral Medium 3 vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 53 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AIMistral Medium 3
53/100- ECI134.1
- Price$0.40 / $2.00
- Context131K
- Our pick
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
62/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
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Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on price and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMistral Medium 3Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3 134.1 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7
- Lowest priceLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · Mistral Medium 3 $0.80 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Mistral Medium 3 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsMistral Medium 3: Text, Images · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Medium 3 | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 52 |
| Price | 25% | 54 | 72 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 100 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 62/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Medium 3Mistral AI | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 134.1 (best) | 129.7 |
| ECI rank | #117 of 148 (best) | #126 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 59.5% (best) | 51.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 32.2% (best) | 7.8% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.40 | $0.225 (best) |
| Output | $2.00 | $0.69 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.80 | $0.341 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Median of 4 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 10,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | mistral-medium-2505 | — |
| API providers | 5 (best) | 4 |
| Released | May 7, 2025 | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2025 | Aug 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Mistral Medium 3$8.00
- Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Medium 3 or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Mistral Medium 3 (53). It leads on price and context window. Mistral Medium 3 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Medium 3 or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). Mistral Medium 3 costs $0.40 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.341 per million tokens for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct versus $0.80 for Mistral Medium 3 (2.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Mistral Medium 3 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Medium 3 134.1 (#117 of 148) and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.5–135.6 vs 124.8–131.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Medium 3 59.5%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Medium 3 32.2%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Medium 3 and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Medium 3 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both 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 Mistral Medium 3. Maximum output per response: Mistral Medium 3 up to 131,072, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Medium 3 accepts text and images; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mistral Medium 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Medium 3 is the newest, released May 7, 2025. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Medium 3 May 2025, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024.
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.
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