Model comparison

Llama 3.2 3B vs Mistral Large 4

Mistral Large 4 is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.1 to 28.9 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Large 4's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 12 shared benchmarks.

Llama 3.2 3B

Summary

They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.2 3B scores higher in 0 categories and Mistral Large 4 in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Mistral Large 4 leads 60.4 to 24.7.
Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.33 per million input/output tokens, against $0.68 / $2.09 for Mistral Large 4.
Mistral Large 4 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
Llama 3.2 3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Llama 3.2 3B and Mistral Large 4 specifications
	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
Provider	Meta	Mistral AI
Noometry Index	28.9	43.1
Released	2024-09-24	2026-10-06
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	131K	1.05M
Max output	118K	262K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.05	$0.68
Output $ / M tokens	$0.33	$2.09
Results tracked	18	15

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Category by category

Coding Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 27.6 (#319), Mistral Large 4: 48.6 (#57)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Coding	1098	1475
LMArena WebDev	—	1541
BigCodeBench Instruct	23.4%	—
BigCodeBench Complete	28.3%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#143), Mistral Large 4: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard	21.9%	—
BALROG	10.1%	—

Reasoning Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 21.0 (#228), Mistral Large 4: 22.5 (#192)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Hard Prompts	1095	1444
NYT Connections (extended)	—	27.4%

Math Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 32.4 (#214), Mistral Large 4: 40.4 (#91)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Math	1126	1488

Knowledge Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 29.7 (#235), Mistral Large 4: 36.6 (#166)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Expert	1090	1447
SimpleQA Verified	—	20%

Multilingual Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 26.2 (#281), Mistral Large 4: 52.6 (#82)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Non-English	1019	1415
LMArena Chinese	1017	1491
LMArena Russian	949	1414
LMArena German	1056	—

Instruction Following Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 56.0 (#275), Mistral Large 4: 75.0 (#76)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Instruction Following	1089	1424

Long Context Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#261), Mistral Large 4: 43.6 (#89)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Longer Query	1100	1429

Writing & Preference Mistral Large 4 leads

Llama 3.2 3B: 24.7 (#307), Mistral Large 4: 60.4 (#97)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Llama 3.2 3B	Mistral Large 4
LMArena Text	1110	1427
LMArena Creative Writing	1094	1361
LMArena Multi-Turn	1105	1424
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	595	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Llama 3.2 3B better than Mistral Large 4?

Which is cheaper, Llama 3.2 3B or Mistral Large 4?

Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.33 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 4 lists at $0.68 and $2.09.

Is Llama 3.2 3B or Mistral Large 4 better for coding?

Mistral Large 4 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 27.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Large 4 does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Llama 3.2 3B and Mistral Large 4 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.2 3B has 18 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Large 4 has 15.