Compare / Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4
Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 12 results on 2 sources that measured both models.
Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe).
Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4? The short answer
Pick Mistral Large 4 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 38.4 against 11.3). Pick Mistral Small 4 if cost matters more: it costs 7.9 times less per token. Mistral Small 4 is also faster.
- Mistral Small 4 is cheaper: $0.26 against $2.06 per million tokens, 7.9 times less.
- Mistral Large 4 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 38.4 against 11.3.
- Mistral Small 4 writes faster: 164 tokens a second against 106.
- Mistral Large 4 is newer: released 6 Oct 2026, against 16 Mar 2026 for Mistral Small 4.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Mistral Large 4 does better for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.
At a glance
| Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Small 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $1.36 in · $4.18 out | $0.15 in · $0.60 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $2.06 | $0.26 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.26 (Mistral) |
| Cached input, per million | – | $0.015 cached input |
| Intelligence Index | 38.4 | 11.3 |
| Spring Prompt overall | 37 | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | 106 | 164 |
| Context window | 524,288 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Released | 6 Oct 2026 (newer) | 16 Mar 2026 |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Developer based in | France | France |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.
| Use case | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live | 18 of 20 | not measured |
| Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is | 19 of 19 | not measured |
| User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled | 4 of 8 | not measured |
| Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending | 10 of 19 | not measured |
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 21 of 164 | 132 of 164 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 44 of 198 | 131 of 198 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | not measured | 116 of 188 |
| Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) | 13 of 22 | 9 of 22 |
From our research
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| BulletBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results | ||
| Ladder Elo · Lightning 10+1ladder Elo, higher is better | 249 | 571no reasoning |
| Cost per game · Lightning 10+1US dollars, lower is better | $0.0117 | $0.0041no reasoning |
| Games lost on time · Lightning 10+1% of games, lower is better | 58.3% | 0.0%no reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better | 38.4 | 11.3 |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better | 35.0% | 9.9% |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better | 26.8% | 0.0% |
Show all 12 results (6 more)
| Measure | Mistral Large 4 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| BulletBench measured by Spring Prompt · 2 results | ||
| Invalid moves · Lightning 10+1% of moves, lower is better | 1.8% | 1.0%no reasoning |
| Median move time · Lightning 10+1milliseconds, lower is better | 0.8 s | 0.6 sno reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better | 81.3% | 49.7% |
| Output speedtokens per second, higher is better | 106 | 164 |
| SciCode% of problems, higher is better | 54.2% | 38.8% |
| Time to first answer tokenseconds, lower is better | 19.8 | 0.47no reasoning |
Quick answers
Is Mistral Large 4 better than Mistral Small 4?
Pick Mistral Large 4 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 38.4 against 11.3). Pick Mistral Small 4 if cost matters more: it costs 7.9 times less per token. Mistral Small 4 is also faster.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper: $0.26 against $2.06 per million tokens, 7.9 times less.
Which is faster, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 writes about 164 tokens a second on its usual API, against 106 for Mistral Large 4 (Artificial Analysis).
Run Mistral Large 4 and Mistral Small 4 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.