Mistral Large 3 2512 vs Mistral Small 4
Mistral Small 4 leads Mistral Large 3 2512 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 11.3 to 9.3, and Mistral Small 4 costs 2.5x less per output token ($0.60 vs $1.50 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 6 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Large 3 2512 or Mistral Small 4: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mistral Large 3 2512 for work measured by AA Coding Index or ALE-Bench, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 6
- Mistral Large 3 2512 only
- 22
- Mistral Small 4 only
- 9
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mistral Small 4
Mistral Small 4 leads, 11.3 against 9.3.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Mistral Large 3 2512
Mistral Large 3 2512 leads, 1.0 against 0.8.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a GPQA Diamond result, 68.4%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a AIME result, 42.9%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a MMLU Pro result, 79.8%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1162.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 262K tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 4
Mistral Large 3 2512 $0.0013, Mistral Small 4 $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has the number, $0.77.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Large 3 2512 not benchmarked, Mistral Small 4 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 7.1 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- ALE-Bench: Mistral Large 3 2512 264.7 against Mistral Small 4 497.6, 7.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Large 3 2512 $1.50 against Mistral Small 4 $0.60 per million output tokens, 2.5x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 262K tokens.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Bars | Mistral Small 4 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 5 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 20.1 | 26.6 | Mistral Small 4 |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 55.3% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 41.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 38.8% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 17.4% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 264.7 | 497.6 | Mistral Small 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 9.3 | 11.3 | Mistral Small 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.0 | 0.8 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 68.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 66.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 76.9% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 9.9% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | Not measured | 40.5% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 42.9% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 85.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 79.8% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 79.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 61.4% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 61.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 52.1% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 82.2% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1162 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1102 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1080 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1136 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1100 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1142 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 993 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1069 | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 24.6% | Not measured | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 48.2% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 49.7% | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| DTBench | 65.1% | 70.9% | Mistral Small 4 |
| LMCA | 16.7% | 20.6% | Mistral Small 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 41 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Small 4 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mistral Small 4 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mistral Small 4 costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | December 1, 2025 | March 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.50 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.50 | $0.60 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.77 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Large 3 2512 better than Mistral Small 4 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mistral Large 3 2512 for work measured by AA Coding Index or ALE-Bench, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 3 2512 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Large 3 2512 costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15 and $0.60. Cost per solved task is known for Mistral Large 3 2512 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Large 3 2512 or Mistral Small 4?
Neither: both take 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Large 3 2512 vs Mistral Small 4 comparison based on?
6 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Mistral Large 3 2512's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Mistral Small 4's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.