Mistral Large 4 Preview vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Mistral Large 4 Preview by Mistral 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
Mistral Large 4 Preview scores 27.1 points higher (38.4 vs 11.3) but costs 38× as much to run the benchmark ($1608 vs $42.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Large 4 Preview when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Large 4 Preview | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.4 | 11.3 | −70.6% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 70.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,607.86 | $42.50 | −97.4% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 97.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 27.12s | 14.50s | −46.5% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 46.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.36 / $4.18 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Mistral Large 4 Preview: 70.6% less intelligence, 97.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 46.5% 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 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Mistral Large 4 PreviewMistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/mistral-large-4/mistral-small-4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-large-4/mistral-small-4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill