DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) by DeepSeek or Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) scores 23.0 points higher (34.3 vs 11.3) but costs 4.7× as much to run the benchmark ($200 vs $42.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 11.3 | −67.1% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 67.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $199.63 | $42.50 | −78.7% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 78.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.91s | 14.50s | −19.0% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 19.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.28 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max): 67.1% less intelligence, 78.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 19.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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