ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 61 to 54 and 42 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 2.3× cheaper per token.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct
  3. 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
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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B (54) and Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability and context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on inputs & features. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. 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% · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · 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 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.1 24B and Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.1 24BMinistral 8B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%472752
Price25%768972
Inputs & features15%602550
Context window10%2424100
Overall100%54/10042/10061/100
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 Ministral 8B Instruct vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIMinistral 8B InstructMistral AILlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.5—129.7 (best)
ECI rank#132 of 148—#126 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.5%27.2%51.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics5.8%—7.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.229$0.15 (best)$0.225
Output$0.436$0.15 (best)$0.69
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.281$0.15 (best)$0.341
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersMedian of 1 providersMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens131,072 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model ID———
API providers214 (best)
ReleasedMar 17, 2025Oct 16, 2024Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJun 2024—Aug 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
  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Small 3.1 24B, Ministral 8B Instruct or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 61/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (54) and Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability and context window. Mistral Small 3.1 24B wins on inputs & features. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. 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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B, Ministral 8B Instruct or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (1.9× 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%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5% and Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3.1 24B, Ministral 8B Instruct and Llama 4 Scout 17B 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, 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; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025; Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, 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

Related comparisons