Command R+ vs Mistral Small
Comparing Command R+ and Mistral Small across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Cohere · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Command R+ and Mistral Small trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Mistral Small is roughly 1.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Command R+ also accepts a larger context window (128,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Command R+
- you process long inputs — it offers a 128,000 token context window
Choose Mistral Small
- cost matters — it's about 1.5x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2024
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Command R+ and Mistral Smalldon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Command R+ ($0.25/1M tokens) is 1.3x more expensive than Mistral Small ($0.20/1M tokens).
For output processing, Command R+ ($1.00/1M tokens) is 1.7x more expensive than Mistral Small ($0.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Command R+ is more expensive than Mistral Small.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Command R+ has 82.0B more parameters than Mistral Small, making it 372.7% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Command R+ accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small's 32,768 tokens. Command R+ can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Mistral Small is limited to 32,768 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Command R+ is licensed under CC BY-NC, while Mistral Small uses Mistral Research License.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
CC BY-NC
Open weights
Mistral Research License
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Command R+ was released on 2024-08-30, while Mistral Small was released on 2024-09-17.
Mistral Small is 1 month newer than Command R+.
Aug 30, 2024
2.0 years ago
Sep 17, 2024
1.9 years ago
2w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Command R+ is available from Cohere, Bedrock. Mistral Small is available from Mistral AI.
Command R+
Mistral Small
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Command R+ and Mistral Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Command R+ vs Mistral Small.