Compare / Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Mistral Large 3 2512

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Mistral Large 3 2512

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 18 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Meta · profile
Mistral Large 3 2512
Mistral · profile
Results compared
18
Shared sources
3

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Mistral Large 3 2512? The short answer

  • Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper: $0.058 against $0.75 per million tokens, 13 times less.
  • Mistral Large 3 2512 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 9.3 against 6.9.
  • On our business benchmarks, Mistral Large 3 2512 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

At a glance

Llama 3.1 8B InstructMistral Large 3 2512
Price per million tokens$0.050 in · $0.080 out$0.50 in · $1.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.058$0.75
Cheapest host, blended$0.025 (DeepInfra, FP8)$0.75 (Mistral)
Intelligence Index6.99.3
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–80
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inthe USFrance

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseLlama 3.1 8B InstructMistral Large 3 2512
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 154 of 161 131 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 173 of 195 155 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 178 of 187 97 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers not measured 120 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricLlama 3.1 8B InstructMistral Large 3 2512
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,2101,409
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,1771,373
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,1981,428
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,1911,400
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,2111,413
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,1821,388
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score 5.4020.1
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 6.909.30
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 25.9%68.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 5.3%4.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 28.6%36.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 18.0%36.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks 1.5%12.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 0.8%15.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 16.4%24.6%
UGI LeaderboardreportedRequested-length error% off the requested word count 20.0%15.0%
UGI LeaderboardreportedStyle adherencescore from 0 to 1 0.340.38
UGI LeaderboardreportedWriting scorescore out of 100 24.841.6

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is Llama 3.1 8B Instruct better than Mistral Large 3 2512?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Mistral Large 3 2512 ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Mistral Large 3 2512?

Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.058 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.75 for Mistral Large 3 2512.

Run Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and Mistral Large 3 2512 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.