ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Qwen Turbo vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50, Qwen Turbo 48, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    44/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen Turbo

    Released Nov 1, 2024

    48/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.05 / $0.20
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen Turbo

  3. Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for raw capability and Qwen Turbo on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructShared benchmarks: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8% · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7% · Qwen Turbo 24.0%
  • Lowest priceQwen TurboQwen Turbo $0.087 · 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 · Qwen Turbo 1,000,000 · 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 · Qwen Turbo: Text · 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 24BQwen TurboLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%272430
Price25%7610072
Inputs & features15%603550
Context window10%2460100
Overall100%44/10048/10050/100
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 Qwen Turbo vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIQwen TurboAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 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%41.8%51.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics5.8%6.1%7.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.229$0.05 (best)$0.225
Output$0.436$0.20 (best)$0.69
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.281$0.087 (best)$0.341
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens16,384 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model ID—qwen-turbo—
API providers234 (best)
ReleasedMar 17, 2025Nov 1, 2024Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJun 2024Apr 2024Aug 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
  • Qwen Turbo$0.90
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 50/100, Qwen Turbo 48/100, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 44/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for raw capability and Qwen Turbo on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025), because Qwen Turbo has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.1 24B, Qwen Turbo or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Qwen Turbo is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $0.087 per million tokens for Qwen Turbo versus $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (3.2× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (3.9× 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 and OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 26.7% and Qwen Turbo 24.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Qwen Turbo 41.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, Qwen Turbo 6.1%, 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, Qwen Turbo 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 1,000,000 for Qwen Turbo and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, Qwen Turbo up to 16,384, 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; Qwen Turbo 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?

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

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; Qwen Turbo came out Nov 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, Qwen Turbo Apr 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

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