Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen3.5 397B A17B leads Mistral Small 4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 21.4 to 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 costs 3.9x less per output token ($0.60 vs $2.34 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 11 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mistral Small 4 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mistral Small 4 for output tokens 3.9x cheaper ($0.60 vs $2.34 per million) and work measured by SciCode or Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 11
- Mistral Small 4 only
- 4
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B only
- 54
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen3.5 397B A17B leads, 21.4 against 11.3.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Mistral Small 4 has a AA Agentic Index result, 0.8.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B has a Design Arena: websites result, 1190.
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 Small 4 $0.0004, Qwen3.5 397B A17B $0.0016 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mistral Small 4 not benchmarked, Qwen3.5 397B A17B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 54.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: Mistral Small 4 41.2% against Qwen3.5 397B A17B 95.6%, 54.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mistral Small 4 $0.60 against Qwen3.5 397B A17B $2.34 per million output tokens, 3.9x 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 Small 4 | Bars | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 3 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 0 | 4 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 11 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index03
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1400 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| AA Coding Index | 26.6 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| SciCode | 38.8% | 44.8% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.4% | 40.9% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| ALE-Bench | 497.6 | 621.9 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1464 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1463 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1388 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1410 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.3 | 21.4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.8 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 0.8 | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 41.2% | 95.6% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 24.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 76.9% | 89.3% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 9.9% | 29.0% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 86.4% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 18.0% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1448 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1450 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1277 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1292 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.5% | Not measured | Only Mistral Small 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 31.2% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1453 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1454 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1457 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1455 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1435 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1190 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1161 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1140 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1175 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1160 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1179 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1139 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 48.2% | 78.8% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 49.7% | 77.3% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| DTBench | 70.9% | 87.5% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| LMCA | 20.6% | 37.9% | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1437 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1424 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1402 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1262 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1443 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1498 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1384 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1447 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1446 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1415 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1399 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1268 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1314 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1271 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1262 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1230 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1265 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1260 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | 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 Small 4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | March 16, 2026 | February 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $0.39 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $2.34 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mistral Small 4 better than Qwen3.5 397B A17B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mistral Small 4 for output tokens 3.9x cheaper ($0.60 vs $2.34 per million) and work measured by SciCode or Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 4 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs $0.39 and $2.34. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Mistral Small 4 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Neither: both take 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B comparison based on?
11 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mistral Small 4's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3.5 397B A17B's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.