Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) by Mistral or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? 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
Solar Mini 4 scores 12.8 points higher (24.1 vs 11.3) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($502 vs $42.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Solar Mini 4 when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.3 | 24.1 | +113.3% Solar Mini 4 is 2.1× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $42.50 | $502.02 | +1081.2% Solar Mini 4 is 12× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.45s | 27.46s | +90.0% Solar Mini 4 is 90.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.60 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning): 113.3% more intelligence, 1081.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.0% 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.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Solar Mini 4Today'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-small-4/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mistral-small-4/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill