GLM-5.3 vs Mistral Small 4
Comparing GLM-5.3 and Mistral Small 4 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Zhipu AI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
GLM-5.3 and Mistral Small 4 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Mistral Small 4 is roughly 8.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
GLM-5.3 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose GLM-5.3
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
Choose Mistral Small 4
- cost matters — it's about 8.2x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
GLM-5.3 and Mistral Small 4don'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, GLM-5.3 ($1.40/1M tokens) is 9.3x more expensive than Mistral Small 4 ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, GLM-5.3 ($4.40/1M tokens) is 7.3x more expensive than Mistral Small 4 ($0.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, GLM-5.3 is more expensive than Mistral Small 4.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
GLM-5.3 has 634.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 4, making it 532.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
GLM-5.3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 4's 256,000 tokens. Mistral Small 4 can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while GLM-5.3 is limited to 131,072 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Mistral Small 4 supports multimodal inputs, whereas GLM-5.3 does not.
Mistral Small 4 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
GLM-5.3
Mistral Small 4
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
GLM-5.3 was released on 2026-08-14, while Mistral Small 4 was released on 2026-03-16.
GLM-5.3 is 5 months newer than Mistral Small 4.
Aug 14, 2026
1 weeks ago
5mo newerMar 16, 2026
5 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
GLM-5.3 is available from ZAI. Mistral Small 4 is available from Mistral AI.
GLM-5.3
Mistral Small 4
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against GLM-5.3 and Mistral Small 4 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about GLM-5.3 vs Mistral Small 4.