Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Muse Spark Open (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral or Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) by Meta? 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
Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) scores 27.6 points higher (38.9 vs 11.3) but costs 28× as much to run the benchmark ($1185 vs $42.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.3 | 38.9 | +244.2% Muse Spark Open (Xhig… is 3.4× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $42.50 | $1,184.90 | +2688.0% Muse Spark Open (Xhig… is 28× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.50s | 17.34s | +19.6% Muse Spark Open (Xhig… is 19.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $1.25 / $4.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning): 244.2% more intelligence, 2688.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 19.6% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
- Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Muse Spark Open (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
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