Model comparison

Llama 3.2 3B vs Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.1 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 3.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Large 3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 14 shared benchmarks.

Llama 3.2 3B

Summary

They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.2 3B scores higher in 1 category and Mistral Large 3 in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Mistral Large 3 leads 60.0 to 24.7.
Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.33 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $0.75 for Mistral Large 3.
Mistral Large 3 accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Llama 3.2 3B and Mistral Large 3 specifications
	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
Provider	Meta	Mistral AI
Noometry Index	28.9	39.1
Released	2024-09-24	2025-12-02
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	131K	262K
Max output	118K	8K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.05	$0.25
Output $ / M tokens	$0.33	$0.75
Results tracked	18	24

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Mistral Large 3 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 27.6 (#319), Mistral Large 3: 34.4 (#237)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Coding	1098	1448
LMArena WebDev	—	1230
BigCodeBench Instruct	23.4%	—
BigCodeBench Complete	28.3%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#143), Mistral Large 3: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	21.9%	—
BALROG	10.1%	—

Reasoning Llama 3.2 3B leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 21.0 (#228), Mistral Large 3: 15.2 (#319)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Hard Prompts	1095	1429
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	50.9%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	7.5%
Thematic Generalization	—	23%

Math Mistral Large 3 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 32.4 (#214), Mistral Large 3: 38.7 (#129)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Math	1126	1414

Knowledge Mistral Large 3 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 29.7 (#235), Mistral Large 3: 36.0 (#177)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Expert	1090	1421
Vectara Hallucination Rate	—	14.5%

Multimodal Not comparable

Llama 3.2 3B: —, Mistral Large 3: 38.2 (#66)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Vision	—	1221

Multilingual Mistral Large 3 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 26.2 (#281), Mistral Large 3: 52.5 (#84)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Non-English	1019	1413
LMArena Chinese	1017	1447
LMArena German	1056	1437
LMArena Russian	949	1411
LMArena French	—	1455
LMArena Japanese	—	1394
LMArena Korean	—	1384
LMArena Spanish	—	1440

Instruction Following Mistral Large 3 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 56.0 (#275), Mistral Large 3: 74.0 (#108)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Instruction Following	1089	1403

Long Context Mistral Large 3 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#261), Mistral Large 3: 43.1 (#105)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Longer Query	1100	1413

Writing & Preference Mistral Large 3 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 24.7 (#307), Mistral Large 3: 60.0 (#101)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 3
LMArena Text	1110	1428
LMArena Creative Writing	1094	1386
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	595	1412
LMArena Multi-Turn	1105	1429

Frequently asked questions

Is Llama 3.2 3B better than Mistral Large 3?

Which is cheaper, Llama 3.2 3B or Mistral Large 3?

Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.33 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 3 lists at $0.25 and $0.75.

Is Llama 3.2 3B or Mistral Large 3 better for coding?

Mistral Large 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 34.4 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Large 3 does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Llama 3.2 3B and Mistral Large 3 share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.2 3B has 18 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Large 3 has 24.