LLM Reference

Mistral Large 2 vs Phi-3 Mini 4k

Mistral Large 2 (2025) and Phi-3 Mini 4k (2024) are compact production models from MistralAI and Microsoft Research. Mistral Large 2 ships a 128k-token context window, while Phi-3 Mini 4k ships a 4k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Mistral Large 2 leads by 24.0 pts. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

Phi-3 Mini 4k is ~860% cheaper at $0.05/1M; pay for Mistral Large 2 only for long-context analysis.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalMistral Large 2Phi-3 Mini 4k
Best formultimodal apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed productionprovider-routed production
Decision fitCoding, RAG, and AgentsCoding and Classification
Context window128k4k
Cheapest output$2.40/1M tokens$0.25/1M tokens
Provider routes3 tracked4 tracked
Shared benchmarksMMLU PRO leader4 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Mistral Large 2 when...
  • Mistral Large 2 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 24.0 points.
  • Mistral Large 2 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
  • Mistral Large 2 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Mistral Large 2 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Choose Phi-3 Mini 4k when...
  • Phi-3 Mini 4k has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.25/1M tokens.
  • Phi-3 Mini 4k has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Local decision data tags Phi-3 Mini 4k for Coding and Classification.

Monthly cost at traffic

Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.

Lower estimate Phi-3 Mini 4k

Mistral Large 2

$984

Cheapest tracked route/tier: AWS Bedrock

Phi-3 Mini 4k

$103

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Replicate API

Estimated monthly gap: $882. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Mistral Large 2 -> Phi-3 Mini 4k
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Mistral Large 2 and Phi-3 Mini 4k; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Phi-3 Mini 4k is $2.15/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
Phi-3 Mini 4k -> Mistral Large 2
  • No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Phi-3 Mini 4k and Mistral Large 2; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
  • Mistral Large 2 is $2.15/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
  • Mistral Large 2 adds Vision, Multimodal, and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2025-11-252024-04-23
Context window128k4k
Parameters123B3.8B
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyDecoder Only
LicenseMistral LicenseMITOSI-approved
OpennessOpen weightsOpen source
WeightsUnknownUnknown
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: non-commercialCommercial use: permitted
Knowledge cutoff2025-072023-10

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeMistral Large 2Phi-3 Mini 4k
Input price$0.48/1M tokens$0.05/1M tokens
Output price$2.40/1M tokens$0.25/1M tokens
Providers
IBM watsonxAWS BedrockMistral AI Studio
Microsoft FoundryNVIDIA NIMBaseten APIReplicate API

Capabilities

CapabilityMistral Large 2Phi-3 Mini 4k
VisionYesNo
MultimodalYesNo
ReasoningNoNo
JSON / Tool useYesNo
Structured outputsYesNo
Code executionNoNo
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

Benchmarks

BenchmarkMistral Large 2Phi-3 Mini 4k
MMLU PRO69.745.7
HumanEval84.859.8
Massive Multitask Language Understanding84.068.2
HellaSwag93.887.1

Continue comparing

Model pages
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Last reviewed: 2026-06-16. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.