GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI 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
GPT-5.5 (Medium) scores 22.5 points higher (33.8 vs 11.3) but costs 49× as much to run the benchmark ($2095 vs $42.5; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.8 | 11.3 | −66.6% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 66.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,095.12 | $42.50 | −98.0% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 98.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.97s | 14.45s | +44.9% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 44.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium): 66.6% less intelligence, 98.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (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.
GPT-5.5 (Medium)Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/mistral-small-4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/mistral-small-4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill