Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Mistral Small 4
Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Small 4 are closely matched at 18.4 and 18.2 on the LLM Stats Score. Mistral Small 4 is 22.9x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Small 4 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 18.4 and 18.2.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mistral Small 4 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Mistral Small 4 is roughly 22.9x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mistral Small 4 also accepts a larger context window (256,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet
- you want predictable pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output
Choose Mistral Small 4
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
- cost matters — it's about 22.9x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2026
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
19 reported for Claude 3.5 Sonnet · 9 for Mistral Small 4
Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 4 is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).
Mistral Small 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 20.0x more expensive than Mistral Small 4 ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 25.0x more expensive than Mistral Small 4 ($0.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is more expensive than Mistral Small 4.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mistral Small 4 accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Claude 3.5 Sonnet's 200,000 tokens. Mistral Small 4 can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is limited to 200,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Small 4 support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Mistral Small 4
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 4 uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released on 2024-10-22, while Mistral Small 4 was released on 2026-03-16.
Mistral Small 4 is 17 months newer than Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Oct 22, 2024
2.0 years ago
Mar 16, 2026
7 months ago
1.4yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Mistral Small 4 is available from Mistral AI.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Mistral Small 4
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Small 4 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Mistral Small 4.