Mixtral 8x7B vs Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct
Mixtral 8x7B (2023) and Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct (2024) are compact production models from MistralAI and Microsoft Research. Mixtral 8x7B ships a 32k-token context window, while Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct ships a 128k-token context window. On pricing, Mixtral 8x7B costs $0.15/1M input tokens versus $0.50/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Mixtral 8x7B is ~233% cheaper at $0.15/1M; pay for Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct only for long-context analysis.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Mixtral 8x7B | Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | general production evaluation |
| Decision fit | Coding and Classification | Long context |
| Context window | 32k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $0.45/1M tokens | $0.50/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 18 tracked | 1 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Mixtral 8x7B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.45/1M tokens.
- Mixtral 8x7B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Mixtral 8x7B for Coding and Classification.
- Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Local decision data tags Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct for Long context.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Mixtral 8x7B
$233
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Mistral AI Studio
Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct
$525
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Fireworks AI
Estimated monthly gap: $293. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct is $0.05/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Provider overlap exists on Fireworks AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Mixtral 8x7B is $0.05/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2023-12-11 | 2024-08-20 |
| Context window | 32k | 128k |
| Parameters | 8x7B | 16x3.8B (42B, 6.6B active) |
| Architecture | Mixture of Experts | Decoder Only |
| License | Apache 2.0OSI-approved | MITOSI-approved |
| Openness | Open source | Open source |
| Weights | Unknown | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2023-12 | 2023-10 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Mixtral 8x7B | Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.15/1M tokens | $0.50/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.45/1M tokens | $0.50/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Mixtral 8x7B | Phi 3.5 MoE Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| JSON / Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | No | No |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.