gpt-oss-120b (High) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: gpt-oss-120b (High) 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-oss-120b (High) scores 0.3 points higher (11.6 vs 11.3) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($123 vs $42.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). Pick gpt-oss-120b (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning).
| Metric | gpt-oss-120b (High) | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.6 | 11.3 | −2.6% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 2.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $122.71 | $42.50 | −65.4% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 65.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.38s | 14.50s | +17.1% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 17.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs gpt-oss-120b (High): 2.6% less intelligence, 65.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 17.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- gpt-oss-120b (High) 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.
gpt-oss-120b (High)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-oss-120b/mistral-small-4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-oss-120b/mistral-small-4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill