Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning by NVIDIA? 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
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores 1.6 points higher (12.9 vs 11.3) but costs 2.2× as much to run the benchmark ($92.8 vs $42.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). Pick Nemotron 3.5 Lightning when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning).
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.3 | 12.9 | +14.2% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 14.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $42.50 | $92.76 | +118.3% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 2.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.50s | 9.16s | −36.8% Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 36.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.06 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning): 14.2% more intelligence, 118.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 36.8% faster 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.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Nemotron 3.5 LightningToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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