Head to head · tested 27 Oct 2026

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: accuracy, speed and price

Mistral Large 4 is more accurate; Mistral Small 4 is cheaper.

MistralMistral Large 450.0% score · #47$0.011 per question83 tok/s

MistralMistral Small 432.5% score · #62$0.0019 per question170 tok/s

Verdict

Built from the measurements below

Mistral Large 4 is more accurate: 50.0% against 32.5% on the same 80 questions, a 17.5-point gap that is statistically significant.
Mistral Small 4 is 6.1× cheaper per question as billed ($0.0019 vs $0.011), reasoning tokens included.
Mistral Small 4 generates text 2.0× faster: 170 tokens per second against 83.
Mistral Small 4 starts answering sooner: 0.5 s to the first token, against 1.1 s for Mistral Large 4.
Mistral Large 4 accepts more context: 1M tokens against 262k.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mistral Large 4 for the most accurate answers of the two and a 1M-token context window. Choose Mistral Small 4 for the lower cost per correct answer ($0.0057 against $0.023), faster streaming, a quicker first token and open weights you can run yourself. The widest subject gap is in science: Mistral Large 4 answered 20 of 30 correctly, Mistral Small 4 7 of 30. With so few questions per subject, treat this as a lead to test on your own prompts, not a result.

Accuracy gap +17.5 points (z = 2.25). We call a winner only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.

Head to head

Same questions, same prompt, same API

Measure	Mistral Large 4	Mistral Small 4	Edge
Verification scoreHigher is better	50.0%	32.5%	Mistral Large 4
Cost per questionLower is better	$0.011	$0.0019	Mistral Small 4
Output speedHigher is better	83	170	Mistral Small 4
Time to first tokenLower is better	1.1 s	0.5 s	Mistral Small 4
End-to-end response timeLower is better	9.5 s	4.5 s	Mistral Small 4
Tokens per questionLower is better	2,613	3,021	Mistral Large 4
Context windowHigher is better	1M	262k	Mistral Large 4

Side by side

Bars are scaled to the larger of the two values. The winner on each measure is marked in bold.

Every measure

Mistral Large 4 first, Mistral Small 4 second

Verification scorehigher is better

Mistral Large 450.0%

Mistral Small 432.5%

Cost per questionlower is better

Mistral Large 4$0.011

Mistral Small 4$0.0019

Output speedhigher is better

Mistral Large 483

Mistral Small 4170

Time to first tokenlower is better

Mistral Large 41.1 s

Mistral Small 40.5 s

End-to-end response timelower is better

Mistral Large 49.5 s

Mistral Small 44.5 s

Tokens per questionlower is better

Mistral Large 42,613

Mistral Small 43,021

Context windowhigher is better

Mistral Large 41M

Mistral Small 4262k

Score vs. cost per question

Both models in color, every other model in grey

Results by subject and dataset

Questions answered correctly. Small samples: a gap of one or two questions is noise.

Subject	Questions	Mistral Large 4	Mistral Small 4
Science	30	20/30	7/30
Engineering	15	3/15	0/15
Medicine	11	2/11	5/11
Economics	9	7/9	6/9
Law	6	2/6	2/6
Humanities & social science	9	6/9	6/9
SuperGPQA dataset	50	17/50	7/50
MMLU-Pro dataset	30	23/30	19/30

Specifications and pricing

From OpenRouter's catalogue, plus our test dates

Specification	Mistral Large 4	Mistral Small 4
Creator	Mistral	Mistral
Released	6 Oct 2026	16 Mar 2026
Weights	—	Open weights
Reasoning	Yes	Yes
Input	text, image	text, image
Output	text	text
Context window	1M tokens	262k tokens
Knowledge cutoff	—	—
List price in / out per 1M	$1.36 / $4.18	$0.15 / $0.6
Blended price per 1M (3:1)	$2.06	$0.26
Cheapest host	Mistral · $1.36 / $4.18	Mistral · $0.15 / $0.6
Hosts on OpenRouter	1	1
Last tested	26 Oct 2026	26 Oct 2026

Compare any two models →

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: frequently asked questions

Is Mistral Large 4 better than Mistral Small 4?: Mistral Large 4 is more accurate: it answered 40 of 80 questions correctly (50.0%) against 26 of 80 (32.5%) for Mistral Small 4. Mistral Large 4 is more accurate; Mistral Small 4 is cheaper.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?: Mistral Small 4 is cheaper: $0.0019 per question as billed, against $0.011. List prices: Mistral Large 4 $1.36 in / $4.18 out, Mistral Small 4 $0.15 in / $0.6 out per million tokens.
Which is faster, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?: Mistral Small 4 is faster at 170 output tokens per second, against 83. Time to first token: 1.1 s for Mistral Large 4, 0.5 s for Mistral Small 4.
Which has the larger context window, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?: Mistral Large 4, with 1M tokens against 262k.

Measure

Mistral Large 4

Mistral Small 4

Edge

Verification scoreHigher is better

50.0%

32.5%

Mistral Large 4

Cost per questionLower is better

$0.011

$0.0019

Mistral Small 4

Output speedHigher is better

170

Mistral Small 4

Time to first tokenLower is better

1.1 s

0.5 s

Mistral Small 4

End-to-end response timeLower is better

9.5 s

4.5 s

Mistral Small 4

Tokens per questionLower is better

2,613

3,021

Mistral Large 4

Context windowHigher is better

262k

Mistral Large 4

Subject

Questions

Mistral Large 4

Mistral Small 4

Science

20/30

7/30

Engineering

3/15

0/15

Medicine

2/11

5/11

Economics

7/9

6/9

Law

2/6

Humanities & social science

6/9

SuperGPQA dataset

17/50

7/50

MMLU-Pro dataset

23/30

19/30

Specification

Mistral Large 4

Mistral Small 4

Creator

Mistral

Released

6 Oct 2026

16 Mar 2026

Weights

—

Open weights

Reasoning

Yes

Input

text, image

Output

text

Context window

1M tokens

262k tokens

Knowledge cutoff

—

List price in / out per 1M

$1.36 / $4.18

$0.15 / $0.6

Blended price per 1M (3:1)

$2.06

$0.26

Cheapest host

Mistral · $1.36 / $4.18

Mistral · $0.15 / $0.6

Hosts on OpenRouter

Last tested

26 Oct 2026

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: frequently asked questions

Is Mistral Large 4 better than Mistral Small 4?

Mistral Large 4 is more accurate: it answered 40 of 80 questions correctly (50.0%) against 26 of 80 (32.5%) for Mistral Small 4. Mistral Large 4 is more accurate; Mistral Small 4 is cheaper.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?

Mistral Small 4 is cheaper: $0.0019 per question as billed, against $0.011. List prices: Mistral Large 4 $1.36 in / $4.18 out, Mistral Small 4 $0.15 in / $0.6 out per million tokens.

Which is faster, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?

Mistral Small 4 is faster at 170 output tokens per second, against 83. Time to first token: 1.1 s for Mistral Large 4, 0.5 s for Mistral Small 4.

Which has the larger context window, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?

Mistral Large 4, with 1M tokens against 262k.

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: accuracy, speed and price

Verdict

Which should you choose?

Head to head

Side by side

Every measure

Score vs. cost per question

Results by subject and dataset

Specifications and pricing

Related comparisons

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: frequently asked questions

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: accuracy, speed and price

Verdict

Which should you choose?

Head to head

Side by side

Every measure

Score vs. cost per question

Results by subject and dataset

Specifications and pricing

Related comparisons

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: frequently asked questions