Model comparison
Llama 3.2 3B vs Mistral Small 3.1
Mistral Small 3.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.4 to 28.4 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 3.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Small 3.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 14 shared benchmarks.
Meta
Mistral AISummary
- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.2 3B scores higher in 3 categories and Mistral Small 3.1 in 5 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Llama 3.2 3B leads 29.9 to 13.7.
- Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.33 per million input/output tokens, against $0.35 / $0.56 for Mistral Small 3.1.
- Llama 3.2 3B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 28.4 | 31.4 |
| Released | 2024-09-24 | 2025-03-17 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 128K |
| Max output | 118K | 102K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $0.35 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.33 | $0.56 |
| Results tracked | 18 | 28 |
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Category by category
Coding Mistral Small 3.1 leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 27.1 (#314), Mistral Small 3.1: 37.7 (#175)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1098 | 1309 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 23.4% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 28.3% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Llama 3.2 3B: 19.9 (#135), Mistral Small 3.1: —
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 21.9% | — |
| BALROG | 10.1% | — |
Reasoning Llama 3.2 3B leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#225), Mistral Small 3.1: 18.9 (#249)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1095 | 1278 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 127.48 |
Math Llama 3.2 3B leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 29.9 (#213), Mistral Small 3.1: 13.7 (#295)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1126 | 1261 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 3.9% |
| Omni-MATH | — | 24.8% |
Knowledge Llama 3.2 3B leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 29.1 (#232), Mistral Small 3.1: 22.6 (#266)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1090 | 1258 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 41.9% |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 61% |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 39.2% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Llama 3.2 3B: —, Mistral Small 3.1: 32.6 (#93)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1136 |
Multilingual Mistral Small 3.1 leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 26.4 (#276), Mistral Small 3.1: 41.4 (#204)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1019 | 1255 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1017 | 1254 |
| LMArena German | 1056 | 1266 |
| LMArena Russian | 949 | 1263 |
| LMArena French | — | 1270 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1210 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1206 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1283 |
Instruction Following Mistral Small 3.1 leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 56.3 (#270), Mistral Small 3.1: 63.8 (#225)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1089 | 1264 |
| IFEval | — | 75% |
Long Context Mistral Small 3.1 leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#256), Mistral Small 3.1: 39.5 (#172)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1101 | 1300 |
Writing & Preference Mistral Small 3.1 leads
Llama 3.2 3B: 24.9 (#302), Mistral Small 3.1: 37.2 (#254)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Mistral Small 3.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1110 | 1278 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1094 | 1253 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 595 | 761 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1105 | 1270 |
| WildBench | — | 78.8% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Llama 3.2 3B better than Mistral Small 3.1?
Mistral Small 3.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 31.4 to 28.4 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 3.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Small 3.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Llama 3.2 3B or Mistral Small 3.1?
Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.33 per million output tokens; Mistral Small 3.1 lists at $0.35 and $0.56.
Is Llama 3.2 3B or Mistral Small 3.1 better for coding?
Mistral Small 3.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.7 versus 27.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Llama 3.2 3B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Llama 3.2 3B and Mistral Small 3.1 share?
14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.2 3B has 18 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3.1 has 28.