ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mixtral 8x7B vs Mistral Large 2.1 vs Claude Haiku 3

Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 47 to 38 and 37 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mixtral 8x7B

    Released Dec 11, 2023

    37/100
    • ECI118.5
    • Price$0.70 / $0.70
    • Context32K
    Full specs Remove Mixtral 8x7B

  2. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 2.1

    Released Nov 18, 2024

    38/100
    • ECI128.5
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Large 2.1
  3. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3

    Released Mar 13, 2024

    47/100
    • ECI118.4
    • Price$0.25 / $1.25
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3
01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 3 is our pick

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Mistral Large 2.1 (38) and Mixtral 8x7B (37). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Mistral Large 2.1 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMistral Large 2.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 2.1 128.5 · Mixtral 8x7B 118.5 · Claude Haiku 3 118.4
  • Lowest priceClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 · Mixtral 8x7B $0.70 · Mistral Large 2.1 $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Mistral Large 2.1 131,072 · Mixtral 8x7B 32,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Mixtral 8x7B: Text · Mistral Large 2.1: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingMixtral 8x7B and Mistral Large 2.1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMixtral 8x7BMistral Large 2.1Claude Haiku 3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%385138
Price25%572764
Inputs & features15%252560
Context window10%02432
Overall100%37/10038/10047/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mixtral 8x7B vs Mistral Large 2.1 vs Claude Haiku 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationMixtral 8x7BMistral AIMistral Large 2.1Mistral AIClaude Haiku 3Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)118.5128.5 (best)118.4
ECI rank#142 of 148#130 of 148 (best)#143 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions30.6%51.3% (best)36.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—7.8% (best)1.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70$2.00$0.25 (best)
Output$0.70 (best)$6.00$1.25
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.70$3.00$0.50 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window32,000 tokens131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output32,000 tokens (best)16,384 tokens4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model IDopen-mixtral-8x7bmistral-large-2411—
API providers12 (best)2 (best)
ReleasedDec 11, 2023Nov 18, 2024Mar 13, 2024
Knowledge cutoffJan 2024Nov 2024Aug 31, 2023
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 8x7B$8.40
  • Mistral Large 2.1$32.00
  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mixtral 8x7B, Mistral Large 2.1 or Claude Haiku 3?

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Mistral Large 2.1 (38) and Mixtral 8x7B (37). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Mistral Large 2.1 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mixtral 8x7B, Mistral Large 2.1 or Claude Haiku 3?

Claude Haiku 3 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Mixtral 8x7B costs $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Mistral Large 2.1 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 $0.50 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 3 versus $0.70 for Mixtral 8x7B (1.4× as much) and $3.00 for Mistral Large 2.1 (6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Mistral Large 2.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 2.1 128.5 (#130 of 148), Mixtral 8x7B 118.5 (#142 of 148) and Claude Haiku 3 118.4 (#143 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (123.8–130.8 vs 111.3–121.3), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Large 2.1 51.3%, Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Mixtral 8x7B 30.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mixtral 8x7B, Mistral Large 2.1 and Claude Haiku 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Large 2.1 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?

Claude Haiku 3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Mistral Large 2.1 and 32,000 for Mixtral 8x7B. Maximum output per response: Mixtral 8x7B up to 32,000, Mistral Large 2.1 up to 16,384, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mixtral 8x7B accepts text; Mistral Large 2.1 accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mixtral 8x7B and Mistral Large 2.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Large 2.1 is the newest, released Nov 18, 2024. Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024; Mixtral 8x7B came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: Mixtral 8x7B Jan 2024, Mistral Large 2.1 Nov 2024, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 2023.

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