AI model comparison

Mistral Large 3 vs Llama 3.1 70B

Comparing a managed European-hosted flagship with a popular open-weight model for teams balancing capability, data-residency, and deployment flexibility.

Quick answer: Llama 3.1 70B (hosted on Together) lists far lower per-token prices ($0.88 flat vs $2/$6 per 1M), while Mistral Large 3 offers a managed flagship with multilingual positioning and European hosting options.

Pricing & context

All figures below are list prices pulled directly from the Harpd pricing registry (last verified 2026-08-18). Prices change often — open each model’s source link to confirm before budgeting. Machine-readable copy: /data/llm-pricing.json.

MetricMistral Large 3Llama 3.1 70B
ProviderMistralMeta · Together
Input / 1M tokens$2$0.88
Output / 1M tokens$6$0.88
Cached input / 1M tokensNot publishedNot published
Batch discount50% offNot published
Context window128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
SourceMistral pricing ↗Meta · Together pricing ↗
Llama 3.1 70B lists the lower cost for this workload.

$528 vs $1,600 / month (100k calls, 5k in / 1k out)

Last updated
Methodology
Computed from list prices per 1M tokens; excludes prompt caching and batch discounts.
Harpd has not measured these two models head-to-head yet.

First benchmark: JSON extraction, 100 real tasks — target ship 2026-09-15

Last updated
Methodology
Until then, no performance win is claimed on this page — validate both models on your own tasks.
Mistral Large 3

Capabilities

Mistral Large 3 is a managed flagship with strong multilingual and reasoning performance, a 128k context window, and published batch pricing.

Best for

Multilingual products and teams that want a managed flagship with European hosting and published batch pricing.

Limitations

$2/$6 per 1M lists roughly 2.3–6.8× Llama's resale price, so the premium must be justified by managed convenience or multilingual needs.

Llama 3.1 70B

Capabilities

Llama 3.1 70B is an open-weight model available via resale hosting with a 128k context window, favoring self-host or custom deployment control.

Best for

Cost-sensitive volume, self-hosting, and any deployment where open weights are a hard requirement.

Limitations

Resale pricing depends on the host and can change; self-hosting adds real infrastructure cost that the $0.88 token price does not include.

Recommendation

Both are capable at the 70B-class level, but they serve different operating models: Mistral Large 3 for managed, multilingual, EU-residency-friendly hosting, and Llama 3.1 70B for open-weight flexibility. Neither is strictly better across the board, so validate on your real tasks to decide which you can safely adopt.

Updated 2026-08-18. Sources: Mistral and Meta · Together official pricing pages (verified 2026-08-18); no Harpd-measured benchmark yet.

Methodology & sources

Prices on this page come from the Harpd pricing registry, which mirrors the officialMistral and Meta · Together pricing pages and was last verified 2026-08-18. Capability notes summarize documented provider positioning — they are not Harpd measurements. Cheaper-cost claims are computed from the registry at a fixed reference workload, so they are reproducible from the published dataset. Read the pricing methodology and themodel replacement guide before switching a production workload.

Answer

Price tells you what a model costs. It does not tell you whether it can replace your current model on your real tasks.

Read the evaluation guide
Evidence

Related comparisons

GPT-5 mini vs Llama 3.1 70BGPT-5 mini lists the cheaper input ($0.25 vs $0.88 per 1M) while Llama 3.1 70B lists the cheaper output ($0.88 vs $2); the deeper difference is managed convenience versus open-weight portability.

Explore related tools

Model Compare

Side-by-side pricing and capability explorer for every model in the registry.

LLM Pricing

Full list-price table across providers, updated from official sources.

Benchmarks

Open benchmark data — methodology, datasets and published results.

Mistral Large 3 vs Llama 3.1 70B, answered

Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 3 or Llama 3.1 70B?
Llama 3.1 70B lists the lower cost at Harpd's reference workload (100,000 calls/month, 5,000 input / 1,000 output tokens): about $528 versus $1,600 per month at list prices (0.88/0.88 vs 2/6 USD per 1M input/output tokens). The mix matters: if your workload is output-heavy, recompute with the model compare calculator.
What is the main difference between Mistral Large 3 and Llama 3.1 70B?
Llama 3.1 70B (hosted on Together) lists far lower per-token prices ($0.88 flat vs $2/$6 per 1M), while Mistral Large 3 offers a managed flagship with multilingual positioning and European hosting options.
Which is better for European data residency?
Mistral Large 3 is the managed option with European hosting, so it is the shorter path to EU-resident inference. Llama 3.1 70B can also run in EU data centers, but only if you or a hosting provider operate the infrastructure — that is a deployment project, not a sign-up.
Which should I choose?
Both are capable at the 70B-class level, but they serve different operating models: Mistral Large 3 for managed, multilingual, EU-residency-friendly hosting, and Llama 3.1 70B for open-weight flexibility. Neither is strictly better across the board, so validate on your real tasks to decide which you can safely adopt.