Mistral Small 3 vs Llama 3.3 70B
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
Mistral Small 3
MistralMistral's cost-effective model. Very affordable for general-purpose tasks.
| Input | $0.100/M |
| Output | $0.300/M |
| Context | 32K tokens |
| Best For | High-volume tasks, cost optimization |
| Benchmark | 42/100 |
Llama 3.3 70B
MetaMeta's open-weight 70B model. Strong coding and general capability, widely supported across AI platforms.
| Input | $0.250/M |
| Output | $1.00/M |
| Context | 128K tokens |
| Best For | Self-hosted deployments, cost-effective coding, custom fine-tuning |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | Mistral Small 3 | Llama 3.3 70B | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.01 | $0.04 | Mistral Small 3 saves $0.03 (68%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $0.10 | $0.29 | Mistral Small 3 saves $0.19 (67%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $0.47 | $1.44 | Mistral Small 3 saves $0.96 (67%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.02 | $0.07 | Mistral Small 3 saves $0.04 (64%) |
Verdict
Mistral Small 3 wins on both price and performance — $0.100/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
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