Mistral Large 4 Preview vs Mistral Small 3.1
Which is better for the money: Mistral Large 4 Preview by Mistral or Mistral Small 3.1 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
Mistral Large 4 Preview scores 31.3 points higher (38.4 vs 7.1) but costs 58× as much to run the benchmark ($1608 vs $27.8; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Large 4 Preview when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Large 4 Preview | Mistral Small 3.1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.4 | 7.1 | −81.5% Mistral Small 3.1 is 81.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,607.86 | $27.82 | −98.3% Mistral Small 3.1 is 98.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 25.45s | 11.78s | −53.7% Mistral Small 3.1 is 53.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.36 / $4.18 | $0.08 / $0.14 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.1 vs Mistral Large 4 Preview: 81.5% less intelligence, 98.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 53.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Large 4 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Mistral Small 3.1 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Mistral Large 4 PreviewMistral Small 3.1Today'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/mistral-large-4/mistral-small-3-1 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-large-4/mistral-small-3-1?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill