# Mistral Large 3 vs Step 2 16k Exp 202412

> Mistral Large 3 and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.1 vs 39.2), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-large-3-vs-step-2-16k-exp-202412
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Large 3 scores higher in 6 categories and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 in 2 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 2 16k Exp 202412 leads 25.9 to 15.2.
- Mistral Large 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 39.1 | 39.2 |
| Rank | 176 | 171 |
| Context | 262K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.25 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.75 | — |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Mistral Large 3: 34.4 (#237)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 38.5 (#174)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1448 | 1316 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1230 | — |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Large 3: 15.2 (#319)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 25.9 (#142)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1429 | 1299 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 50.9% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 7.5% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 23% | — |

## Math

- Mistral Large 3: 38.7 (#129)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 36.3 (#169)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1414 | 1304 |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Large 3: 36.0 (#177)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 35.2 (#187)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1421 | 1279 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 14.5% | — |

## Multimodal

- Mistral Large 3: 38.2 (#66)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: —

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1221 | — |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Large 3: 52.5 (#84)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 43.7 (#181)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1413 | 1290 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1447 | 1331 |
| LMArena Russian | 1411 | 1324 |
| LMArena French | 1455 | — |
| LMArena German | 1437 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1394 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1384 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1440 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Large 3: 74.0 (#108)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 67.9 (#192)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1403 | 1287 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Large 3: 43.1 (#105)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 39.7 (#170)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1413 | 1307 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Large 3: 60.0 (#101)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 52.3 (#173)

| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1428 | 1321 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1386 | 1328 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1429 | 1292 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1412 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Large 3 better than Step 2 16k Exp 202412?

Mistral Large 3 and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (39.1 vs 39.2), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Is Mistral Large 3 or Step 2 16k Exp 202412 better for coding?

Step 2 16k Exp 202412 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.5 versus 34.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Large 3 and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Large 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 has 12.