GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) by OpenAI or Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) scores 22.2 points higher (33.5 vs 11.3) but costs 15× as much to run the benchmark ($637 vs $42.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.5 | 11.3 | −66.3% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 66.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $637.28 | $42.50 | −93.3% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 93.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 8.17s | 14.50s | +77.5% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 77.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Low): 66.3% less intelligence, 93.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- 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-5.6 Sol (Low)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-5-6-sol-low/mistral-small-4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-sol-low/mistral-small-4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill