Compare / Mistral Small 3 vs Mistral Small 4
Mistral Small 3 vs Mistral Small 4
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 9 results on 2 sources that measured both models.
Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe).
Mistral Small 3 or Mistral Small 4? The short answer
Mistral Small 4 is the newer version and scores higher (Intelligence Index 11.3 against 6.7), but Mistral Small 3 is cheaper (4.6 times less per token): upgrade if the gain is worth the price.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper: $0.058 against $0.26 per million tokens, 4.6 times less.
- Mistral Small 4 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 11.3 against 6.7.
- Mistral Small 4 is newer: released 16 Mar 2026, against 30 Jan 2025 for Mistral Small 3.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Mistral Small 4 does better for reasoning and knowledge and writing.
At a glance
| Mistral Small 3 | Mistral Small 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.050 in · $0.080 out | $0.15 in · $0.60 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.058 | $0.26 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.26 (Mistral) |
| Cached input, per million | – | $0.015 cached input |
| Intelligence Index | 6.7 | 11.3 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 164 |
| Context window | 32,768 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Released | 30 Jan 2025 | 16 Mar 2026 (newer) |
| Weights | Open | 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 Small 3 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | not measured | 132 of 164 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 193 of 198 | 131 of 198 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 156 of 188 | 116 of 188 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 9 of 152 | not measured |
| Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) | not measured | 9 of 22 |
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 Small 3 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better | 6.7 | 11.3 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better | 46.2% | 76.9% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better | 3.8% | 9.9% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better | 33.9 | 40.3no reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better | 8.0% | 22.0%no reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better | 0.35 | 0.31high reasoning |
Show all 9 results (3 more)
| Measure | Mistral Small 3 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better | 26.4% | 48.2% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better | 0.0% | 49.7% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better | 19.6% | 41.2% |
Quick answers
Is Mistral Small 3 better than Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 is the newer version and scores higher (Intelligence Index 11.3 against 6.7), but Mistral Small 3 is cheaper (4.6 times less per token): upgrade if the gain is worth the price.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper: $0.058 against $0.26 per million tokens, 4.6 times less.
Run Mistral Small 3 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.