# Llama 3.2 3B vs Magistral Medium

> Magistral Medium is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.8 to 28.4 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 23× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Magistral Medium's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/llama-3-2-3b-vs-magistral-medium
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 13

## Summary

- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.2 3B scores higher in 1 category and Magistral Medium in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Magistral Medium leads 46.5 to 24.9.
- Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.33 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $5 for Magistral Medium.
- Llama 3.2 3B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 28.4 | 34.8 |
| Rank | 318 | 224 |
| Context | 131K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $2 |
| Output $/M | $0.33 | $5 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Llama 3.2 3B: 27.1 (#314)
- Magistral Medium: 38.6 (#161)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1098 | 1319 |
| SciCode | — | 39.2% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 23.4% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 28.3% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.2 3B: 19.9 (#135)
- Magistral Medium: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 21.9% | — |
| BALROG | 10.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.2 3B: 20.1 (#225)
- Magistral Medium: 8.7 (#342)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1095 | 1267 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 0% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 16.2% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 6.1% |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |

## Math

- Llama 3.2 3B: 29.9 (#213)
- Magistral Medium: 32.4 (#187)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1126 | 1249 |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.2 3B: 29.1 (#232)
- Magistral Medium: 32.9 (#199)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1090 | 1222 |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.2 3B: 26.4 (#276)
- Magistral Medium: 39.8 (#219)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1019 | 1232 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1017 | 1225 |
| LMArena German | 1056 | 1248 |
| LMArena Russian | 949 | 1224 |
| LMArena French | — | 1268 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1176 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1125 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1269 |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.2 3B: 56.3 (#270)
- Magistral Medium: 66.2 (#207)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1089 | 1254 |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.2 3B: 33.4 (#256)
- Magistral Medium: 39.3 (#178)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1101 | 1295 |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.2 3B: 24.9 (#302)
- Magistral Medium: 46.5 (#214)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.2 3B | Magistral Medium |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1110 | 1255 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1094 | 1245 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1105 | 1275 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 595 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.2 3B better than Magistral Medium?

Magistral Medium is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.8 to 28.4 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.2 3B costs 23× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Magistral Medium's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Llama 3.2 3B or Magistral Medium?

Llama 3.2 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.33 per million output tokens; Magistral Medium lists at $2 and $5.

### Is Llama 3.2 3B or Magistral Medium better for coding?

Magistral Medium scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.6 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 Magistral Medium share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.2 3B has 18 scored results on Noometry and Magistral Medium has 22.