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Head-to-head comparison

R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct

R1 Distill Llama 70B (DeepSeek) and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct (Mistral AI) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 18 August 2026

As of 18 August 2026, R1 Distill Llama 70B holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#192 vs #204); R1 Distill Llama 70B is 7.5× cheaper per output token ($0.80/1M vs $6.00/1M); and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct offers the longer context window (66K vs 8K tokens).

Which should you choose?

Choose R1 Distill Llama 70B if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #192 against #204 (11.5 vs 5.5 points).
  • API cost matters — $0.80/1M output tokens against $6.00/1M, about 7.5× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.80/1M against $2.00/1M.
  • you want the more recently listed model — R1 Distill Llama 70B was listed 23 January 2025, Mixtral 8x22B Instruct 17 April 2024.

Choose Mixtral 8x22B Instruct if…

  • you need the longer context window — 66K tokens against 8K.

R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of R1 Distill Llama 70B and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct
FieldR1 Distill Llama 70BDeepSeekMixtral 8x22B InstructMistral AI
ModelCap Index position#192#204
Index score11.55.5
EvidenceMeasuredMeasured
Input price / 1M tokens$0.80$2.00
Output price / 1M tokens$0.80$6.00
Context window8K tokens66K tokens
Max output tokens8K—
API providers listed11
Weight accessOpen weightsOpen weights
Input modalitiesTextText, File
First listed23 January 202517 April 2024
PublisherDeepSeekMistral AI

Evidence: 1 public benchmark observation across 1 board · 2 public benchmark observations across 2 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct

Public benchmark boards where R1 Distill Llama 70B or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct has a published result
BoardR1 Distill Llama 70BMixtral 8x22B InstructLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)—12771269–1286Only one result
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis9.8intelligence-index—Only one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct: common questions

Is R1 Distill Llama 70B better than Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

R1 Distill Llama 70B ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 18 August 2026: #192 against #204. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.

Is R1 Distill Llama 70B cheaper than Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

R1 Distill Llama 70B is cheaper on output tokens: $0.80/1M against $6.00/1M. Input tokens are $0.80/1M for R1 Distill Llama 70B and $2.00/1M for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, R1 Distill Llama 70B or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

Mixtral 8x22B Instruct has the larger context window: 66K tokens against 8K.

Which is better for coding, R1 Distill Llama 70B or Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are R1 Distill Llama 70B and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct open-weight models?

R1 Distill Llama 70B: Open weights. Mixtral 8x22B Instruct: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run R1 Distill Llama 70B and Mixtral 8x22B Instruct?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for R1 Distill Llama 70B and 1 for Mixtral 8x22B Instruct, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this R1 Distill Llama 70B vs Mixtral 8x22B Instruct comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 18 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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