Mistral Small 3 vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Gemma 3 27B IT
Too close to call on our weighted score (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51, Gemma 3 27B IT 49, Mistral Small 3 39). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Mistral AIMistral Small 3
39/100- ECI—
- Price$0.05 / $0.08
- Context33K
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
51/100- ECI129.6
- Price$0.17 / $0.59
- Context10M
GoogleGemma 3 27B IT
49/100- ECI129.9
- Price$0.11 / $0.30
- Context131K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51/100, Gemma 3 27B IT 49/100, Mistral Small 3 39/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 27B IT for raw capability, Mistral Small 3 on price and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for long inputs. 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 Mistral Small 3 has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityGemma 3 27B ITShared benchmarks: Gemma 3 27B IT 35.1% · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8% · Mistral Small 3 27.0%
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3Mistral Small 3 $0.058 · Gemma 3 27B IT $0.157 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.275 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Gemma 3 27B IT 131,072 · Mistral Small 3 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Gemma 3 27B ITMistral Small 3: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Gemma 3 27B IT: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Small 3 | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct | Gemma 3 27B IT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 27 | 30 | 35 |
| Price | 25% | 100 | 73 | 84 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 0 | 50 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 0 | 100 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 39/100 | 51/100 | 49/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Small 3Mistral AI | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta | Gemma 3 27B ITGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 129.6 | 129.9 (best) |
| ECI rank | — | #138 of 165 | #137 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 47.3% | 51.8% (best) | 47.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 6.7% | 7.8% | 22.5% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.05 (best) | $0.17 | $0.11 |
| Output | $0.08 (best) | $0.59 | $0.30 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.058 (best) | $0.275 | $0.157 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 6 providers | Median of 13 providers | Median of 16 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 32,768 tokens | 10,000,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 6 | 13 | 17 (best) |
| Released | Jan 30, 2025 | Apr 5, 2025 | Mar 12, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Oct 31, 2023 | Aug 2024 | 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 Small 3$0.66
- Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$2.88
- Gemma 3 27B IT$1.69
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Small 3, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Gemma 3 27B IT?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51/100, Gemma 3 27B IT 49/100, Mistral Small 3 39/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 3 27B IT for raw capability, Mistral Small 3 on price and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct for long inputs. 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 Mistral Small 3 has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Gemma 3 27B IT?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.08 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). Gemma 3 27B IT costs $0.11 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers); Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct costs $0.17 input / $0.59 output per million tokens (median across 13 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.058 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3 versus $0.157 for Gemma 3 27B IT (2.7× as much) and $0.275 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (4.8× 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): Gemma 3 27B IT 35.1%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 29.8% and Mistral Small 3 27.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Gemma 3 27B IT 47.7%, Mistral Small 3 47.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 3 27B IT 22.5%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%, Mistral Small 3 6.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Gemma 3 27B IT yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 3 27B IT leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Note that Mistral Small 3 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
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 Gemma 3 27B IT and 32,768 for Mistral Small 3. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3 up to 16,384, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Gemma 3 27B IT up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Small 3 accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Gemma 3 27B IT accepts text and images. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Gemma 3 27B IT came out Mar 12, 2025; Mistral Small 3 came out Jan 30, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3 Oct 31, 2023, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024, Gemma 3 27B IT 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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