Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 28.5 points higher (39.8 vs 11.3) but costs 26× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $42.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 11.3 | −71.6% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 71.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $42.50 | −96.1% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 96.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 14.45s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 71.6% less intelligence, 96.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- 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 3.8 Flash (Medium)Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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