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Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 vs Phi-3 Medium 128K

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 (2024) and Phi-3 Medium 128K (2024) are compact production models from MistralAI and Microsoft Research. Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 ships a 64K-token context window, while Phi-3 Medium 128K ships a 128K-token context window. On HumanEval, Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 leads by 34 pts. On pricing, Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 costs $0.3/1M input tokens versus $0.5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 is ~67% cheaper at $0.3/1M; pay for Phi-3 Medium 128K only for long-context analysis.

Specs

Released2024-04-172024-05-21
Context window64K128K
Parameters8x22B14B
Architecturemixture of expertsdecoder only
LicenseApache 2.0Open Source
Knowledge cutoff--

Pricing and availability

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1Phi-3 Medium 128K
Input price$0.3/1M tokens$0.5/1M tokens
Output price$0.9/1M tokens$1.5/1M tokens
Providers

Capabilities

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1Phi-3 Medium 128K
Vision
Multimodal
Reasoning
Function calling
Tool use
Structured outputs
Code execution

Benchmarks

BenchmarkMixtral 8x22B v0.1Phi-3 Medium 128K
HumanEval86.252.2
Massive Multitask Language Understanding84.575.3

Deep dive

On shared benchmark coverage, HumanEval has Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 at 86.2 and Phi-3 Medium 128K at 52.2, with Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 ahead by 34 points; Massive Multitask Language Understanding has Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 at 84.5 and Phi-3 Medium 128K at 75.3, with Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 ahead by 9.2 points. The largest visible gap is 34 points on HumanEval, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.

The capability footprint is close: both models cover the core production surface. That makes context budget, benchmark fit, and provider maturity more important than a simple checklist. If your application depends on one integration detail, verify it against the provider route you plan to use, not just the base model listing.

For cost, Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 lists $0.3/1M input and $0.9/1M output tokens, while Phi-3 Medium 128K lists $0.5/1M input and $1.5/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 lower by about $0.32 per million blended tokens. Availability is 8 providers versus 2, so concentration risk also matters.

Choose Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 when provider fit, lower input-token cost, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Phi-3 Medium 128K when long-context analysis 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.

FAQ

Which has a larger context window, Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 or Phi-3 Medium 128K?

Phi-3 Medium 128K supports 128K tokens, while Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 supports 64K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.

Which is cheaper, Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 or Phi-3 Medium 128K?

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 costs $0.3/1M input and $0.9/1M output tokens. Phi-3 Medium 128K costs $0.5/1M input and $1.5/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.

Is Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 or Phi-3 Medium 128K open source?

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 is listed under Apache 2.0. Phi-3 Medium 128K is listed under Open Source. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.

Where can I run Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 and Phi-3 Medium 128K?

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 is available on NVIDIA NIM, OctoAI API, Fireworks AI, DeepInfra, and Baseten API. Phi-3 Medium 128K is available on Microsoft Foundry and NVIDIA NIM. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.

When should I pick Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 over Phi-3 Medium 128K?

Mixtral 8x22B v0.1 is ~67% cheaper at $0.3/1M; pay for Phi-3 Medium 128K only for long-context analysis. If your workload also depends on provider fit, start with Mixtral 8x22B v0.1; if it depends on long-context analysis, run the same evaluation with Phi-3 Medium 128K.

Continue comparing

Last reviewed: 2026-04-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.