Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google 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
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite scores 4.3 points higher (15.6 vs 11.3) but costs 3.7× as much to run the benchmark ($156 vs $42.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 11.3 | −27.6% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 27.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $42.50 | −72.7% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 72.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.15s | 14.50s | +135.8% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 135.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 27.6% less intelligence, 72.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 135.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteMistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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