ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs GPT-5.4 nano vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

GPT-5.4 nano comes out ahead, 68 to 62 and 55 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.1 24B is 39% cheaper per token.

  1. 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
  2. Our pick

    OpenAI

    GPT-5.4 nano

    Released Mar 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI145.8
    • Price$0.20 / $1.25
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5.4 nano

  3. 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
01 — Verdict

GPT-5.4 nano is our pick

GPT-5.4 nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-5.4 nanoCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 nano 145.8 · 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 · GPT-5.4 nano $0.463 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · GPT-5.4 nano 400,000 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsMistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · GPT-5.4 nano: Text, Images · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24B and Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.1 24BGPT-5.4 nanoLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%507352
Price25%766672
Inputs & features15%607050
Context window10%2444100
Overall100%55/10068/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs GPT-5.4 nano vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIGPT-5.4 nanoOpenAILlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.5145.8 (best)129.7
ECI rank#132 of 148#75 of 148 (best)#126 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.5%78.5% (best)51.8%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—44.9%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics5.8%87.8% (best)7.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—11.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.229$0.20 (best)$0.225
Output$0.436 (best)$1.25$0.69
Cached input—$0.02—
Blended (3:1)$0.281 (best)$0.463$0.341
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens400,000 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens128,000 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYeslow · medium · high · xhighNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model ID—gpt-5.4-nano—
API providers226 (best)4
ReleasedMar 17, 2025Mar 17, 2026Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJun 2024Aug 31, 2025Aug 2024
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.

  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
  • GPT-5.4 nano$4.50
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Small 3.1 24B, GPT-5.4 nano or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

GPT-5.4 nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on price. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.1 24B, GPT-5.4 nano or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

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); GPT-5.4 nano costs $0.20 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (official OpenAI 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 $0.463 for GPT-5.4 nano (1.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-5.4 nano scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 nano 145.8 (#75 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 (143.2–147.7 vs 124.8–131.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.4 nano 78.5%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.4 nano 87.8%, 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B, GPT-5.4 nano and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5.4 nano 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 400,000 for GPT-5.4 nano and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, GPT-5.4 nano up to 128,000, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; GPT-5.4 nano 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?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-5.4 nano is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GPT-5.4 nano is the newest, released Mar 17, 2026. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, GPT-5.4 nano Aug 31, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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