Llama Guard 3 1B vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Llama Guard 3 1B (2024) and Mistral Medium 3.5 (2026) are frontier reasoning models from AI at Meta and MistralAI. Llama Guard 3 1B ships a not-yet-sourced context window, while Mistral Medium 3.5 ships a 256K-token context window. On pricing, Llama Guard 3 1B costs $0.1/1M input tokens versus $1.5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Llama Guard 3 1B is ~1400% cheaper at $0.1/1M; pay for Mistral Medium 3.5 only for reasoning depth.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-09-25 | 2026-04-29 |
| Context window | — | 256K |
| Parameters | 1B | 128B |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Open Source | Mistral License |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama Guard 3 1B | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.1/1M tokens | $1.5/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.1/1M tokens | $7.5/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama Guard 3 1B | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | Yes |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| Function calling | No | Yes |
| Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | No | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on vision: Mistral Medium 3.5, multimodal input: Mistral Medium 3.5, reasoning mode: Mistral Medium 3.5, function calling: Mistral Medium 3.5, tool use: Mistral Medium 3.5, and structured outputs: Mistral Medium 3.5. Both models share the core language-model surface, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Llama Guard 3 1B lists $0.1/1M input and $0.1/1M output tokens, while Mistral Medium 3.5 lists $1.5/1M input and $7.5/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Llama Guard 3 1B lower by about $3.2 per million blended tokens. Availability is 1 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Llama Guard 3 1B when provider fit and lower input-token cost are central to the workload. Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 when reasoning depth are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Llama Guard 3 1B or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Llama Guard 3 1B is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Llama Guard 3 1B costs $0.1/1M input and $0.1/1M output tokens. Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.5/1M input and $7.5/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Llama Guard 3 1B or Mistral Medium 3.5 open source?
Llama Guard 3 1B is listed under Open Source. Mistral Medium 3.5 is listed under Mistral License. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Llama Guard 3 1B or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Mistral Medium 3.5 has the clearer documented vision signal in this comparison. If vision is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for multimodal input, Llama Guard 3 1B or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Mistral Medium 3.5 has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for reasoning mode, Llama Guard 3 1B or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Mistral Medium 3.5 has the clearer documented reasoning mode signal in this comparison. If reasoning mode is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Llama Guard 3 1B and Mistral Medium 3.5?
Llama Guard 3 1B is available on Fireworks AI. Mistral Medium 3.5 is available on Mistral AI Studio. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-05. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.