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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mixtral 8x22B vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 33 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mixtral 8x22B

    Released Apr 17, 2024

    33/100
    • ECI122.0
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context64K
    Full specs Remove Mixtral 8x22B
  2. Our pick

    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

  3. Add a model

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01 — Verdict

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Mixtral 8x22B (33). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructCapabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Mixtral 8x22B 122.0
  • Lowest priceLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · Mixtral 8x22B $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Mixtral 8x22B 64,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMixtral 8x22B: 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
MeasureWeightMixtral 8x22BLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%4352
Price25%2772
Inputs & features15%2550
Context window10%12100
Overall100%33/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mixtral 8x22B vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMixtral 8x22BMistral AILlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)122.0129.7 (best)
ECI rank#139 of 148#126 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions34.1%51.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—7.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.225 (best)
Output$6.00$0.69 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$3.00$0.341 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window64,000 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output64,000 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDopen-mixtral-8x22b—
API providers14 (best)
ReleasedApr 17, 2024Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 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.

  • Mixtral 8x22B$32.00
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mixtral 8x22B or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Mixtral 8x22B (33). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mixtral 8x22B 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). Mixtral 8x22B costs $2.00 input / $6.00 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 $3.00 for Mixtral 8x22B (8.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148) and Mixtral 8x22B 122.0 (#139 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (124.8–131.4 vs 115.1–124.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%, Mixtral 8x22B 34.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mixtral 8x22B 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. 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 64,000 for Mixtral 8x22B. Maximum output per response: Mixtral 8x22B up to 64,000, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mixtral 8x22B accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the newest, released Apr 5, 2025. Mixtral 8x22B came out Apr 17, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mixtral 8x22B 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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