Mixtral 8x22B vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B
Mistral Small 3.1 24B comes out ahead, 55 to 33 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AIMixtral 8x22B
33/100- ECI122.0
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context64K
- Our pickMistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is our pick
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 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%.
- CapabilityMistral Small 3.1 24BCapabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 · Mixtral 8x22B 122.0
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Mixtral 8x22B $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 · Mixtral 8x22B 64,000 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Small 3.1 24BMixtral 8x22B: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Mixtral 8x22B | Mistral Small 3.1 24B |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 43 | 50 |
| Price | 25% | 27 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 60 |
| Context window | 10% | 12 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 33/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mixtral 8x22BMistral AI | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 122.0 | 127.5 (best) |
| ECI rank | #139 of 148 | #132 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 34.1% | 47.5% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 5.8% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $2.00 | $0.229 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 | $0.436 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $3.00 | $0.281 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 64,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Open | Open |
| API model ID | open-mixtral-8x22b | — |
| API providers | 1 | 2 (best) |
| Released | Apr 17, 2024 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Jun 2024 |
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
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mixtral 8x22B or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is cheaper at $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 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 $0.281 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.1 24B versus $3.00 for Mixtral 8x22B (11× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148) and Mixtral 8x22B 122.0 (#139 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (122.6–129.4 vs 115.1–124.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Small 3.1 24B 47.5%, Mixtral 8x22B 34.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mixtral 8x22B and Mistral Small 3.1 24B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B has the largest context window at 128,000 tokens, against 64,000 for Mixtral 8x22B. Maximum output per response: Mixtral 8x22B up to 64,000, Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mixtral 8x22B accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the newest, released Mar 17, 2025. Mixtral 8x22B came out Apr 17, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mixtral 8x22B Apr 2024, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 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.
Related comparisons
- Add GPT-4oThree-way comparison
- Mixtral 8x22B vs GPT-4oOpenAI · ECI 129.0
- Mixtral 8x22B vs Nova ProAmazon · ECI 123.8
- Mixtral 8x22B vs Qwen2.5 72B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 129.0
- Mixtral 8x22B vs Llama-3.1-70B-InstructMeta · ECI 125.9
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta · ECI 129.7
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs GPT-4o miniOpenAI · ECI 126.6
