Llama 3 vs Mistral Large: Open Source Giants Compared

TL;DR

Llama 3 (Meta) offers the best raw performance and ecosystem support. Mistral Large (Mistral AI) provides a more efficient, European-compliant alternative with great reasoning.

Specifications Comparison

FeatureLlama 3Mistral Large
DeveloperMetaMistral AI
LicenseOpen (Custom)Proprietary / Open Weights
Parameter Count8B, 70B, 400B+Unknown (MoE)
MultilingualGoodExcellent (Native Euro support)

Llama 3

Pros

  • ✅ Massive community support
  • ✅ State-of-the-art benchmarks
  • ✅ Free for research

Cons

  • ❌ Heavy restrictive license
  • ❌ Requires massive VRAM
  • ❌ Safety guardrails

Mistral Large

Pros

  • ✅ Efficient inference
  • ✅ Uncensored options
  • ✅ Strong coding ability

Cons

  • ❌ Smaller ecosystem
  • ❌ Confusing licensing
  • ❌ Less documentation

Verdict

Llama 3 (Meta) offers the best raw performance and ecosystem support. Mistral Large (Mistral AI) provides a more efficient, European-compliant alternative with great reasoning.

Last updated: February 2026