Llama 3 70B Instruct vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Llama 3 70B Instruct (2024) and Mistral Medium 3.5 (2026) are frontier reasoning models from AI at Meta and MistralAI. Llama 3 70B Instruct ships a 8K-token context window, while Mistral Medium 3.5 ships a 256K-token context window. On pricing, Llama 3 70B Instruct costs $0.4/1M input tokens versus $1.5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Llama 3 70B Instruct is ~275% cheaper at $0.4/1M; pay for Mistral Medium 3.5 only for reasoning depth.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama 3 70B Instruct | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Decision fit | Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 8K | 256K |
| Cheapest output | $0.4/1M tokens | $7.5/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 17 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 rows | 0 rows |
Decision tradeoffs
- Llama 3 70B Instruct has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.4/1M tokens.
- Llama 3 70B Instruct has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and procurement flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Llama 3 70B Instruct for Coding, Classification, and JSON / Tool use.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Mistral Medium 3.5 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output prices on this page.
Llama 3 70B Instruct
$420
Cheapest tracked route: Hyperbolic AI Inference
Mistral Medium 3.5
$3,075
Cheapest tracked route: Mistral AI Studio
Estimated monthly gap: $2,655. Batch, cache, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is $7.1/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local capability data.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Llama 3 70B Instruct is $7.1/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning before moving production traffic.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-04-18 | 2026-04-29 |
| Context window | 8K | 256K |
| Parameters | 70B | 128B |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Open Source | Mistral License |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-12 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama 3 70B Instruct | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.4/1M tokens | $1.5/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.4/1M tokens | $7.5/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 3 70B Instruct | Mistral Medium 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | Yes |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| Function calling | No | Yes |
| Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | 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, and tool use: Mistral Medium 3.5. Both models share structured outputs, 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 3 70B Instruct lists $0.4/1M input and $0.4/1M 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 3 70B Instruct lower by about $2.9 per million blended tokens. Availability is 17 providers versus 2, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Llama 3 70B Instruct when provider fit, lower input-token cost, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Mistral Medium 3.5 when reasoning depth and larger context windows 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 has a larger context window, Llama 3 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Mistral Medium 3.5 supports 256K tokens, while Llama 3 70B Instruct supports 8K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Llama 3 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5?
Llama 3 70B Instruct is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Llama 3 70B Instruct costs $0.4/1M input and $0.4/1M 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 3 70B Instruct or Mistral Medium 3.5 open source?
Llama 3 70B Instruct 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 3 70B Instruct 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 3 70B Instruct 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.
Where can I run Llama 3 70B Instruct and Mistral Medium 3.5?
Llama 3 70B Instruct is available on GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, NVIDIA NIM, and DeepInfra. Mistral Medium 3.5 is available on Mistral AI Studio and OpenRouter. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-16. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.