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Mistral NeMo Instruct vs Mistral Small

Comparing Mistral NeMo Instruct and Mistral Small across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Mistral AI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mistral NeMo Instruct and Mistral Small trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

On price, Mistral NeMo Instruct is roughly 13.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Mistral NeMo Instruct also accepts a larger context window (131,072 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 Mistral NeMo Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 13.8x cheaper per token
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 131,072 token context window

Choose Mistral Small

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2024

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Mistral NeMo Instruct
Mistral AI
Mistral Small
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.02 / M
$0.20 / M
Output price
$0.03 / M
$0.60 / M
Context window
131,072
32,768

Individual benchmarks

8 reported for Mistral NeMo Instruct · 0 for Mistral Small

No common benchmarks found

Mistral NeMo Instruct and Mistral Smalldon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mistral NeMo Instruct costs less

For input processing, Mistral NeMo Instruct ($0.02/1M tokens) is 10.5x cheaper than Mistral Small ($0.20/1M tokens).

For output processing, Mistral NeMo Instruct ($0.03/1M tokens) is 20.0x cheaper than Mistral Small ($0.60/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Mistral Small is more expensive than Mistral NeMo Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Mon Sep 21 2026 • llm-stats.com
Mistral AI
Mistral NeMo Instruct
Input tokens$0.02
Output tokens$0.03
Best providerDeepinfra
Mistral AI
Mistral Small
Input tokens$0.20
Output tokens$0.60
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

10.0B diff

Mistral Small has 10.0B more parameters than Mistral NeMo Instruct, making it 83.3% larger.

Mistral AI
Mistral NeMo Instruct
12.0Bparameters
Mistral AI
Mistral Small
22.0Bparameters
12.0B
Mistral NeMo Instruct
22.0B
Mistral Small

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Mistral NeMo Instruct accepts 131,072 input tokens compared to Mistral Small's 32,768 tokens. Mistral NeMo Instruct can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Mistral Small is limited to 32,768 tokens.

Mistral AI
Mistral NeMo Instruct
Input131,072 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small
Input32,768 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Mon Sep 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mistral NeMo Instruct is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Mistral Small uses Mistral Research License.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Mistral NeMo Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Mistral Small

Mistral Research License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mistral NeMo Instruct was released on 2024-07-18, while Mistral Small was released on 2024-09-17.

Mistral Small is 2 months newer than Mistral NeMo Instruct.

Mistral NeMo Instruct

Jul 18, 2024

2.2 years ago

Mistral Small

Sep 17, 2024

2.0 years ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Mistral NeMo Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Google, Mistral AI. Mistral Small is available from Mistral AI.

Mistral NeMo Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.02/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.03/1M
google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M
mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M

Mistral Small

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.60/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mistral NeMo Instruct and Mistral Small side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mistral NeMo Instruct
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Mistral NeMo Instruct vs Mistral Small.

Which is better, Mistral NeMo Instruct or Mistral Small?

Mistral NeMo Instruct (Mistral AI) and Mistral Small (Mistral AI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Mistral NeMo Instruct compare to Mistral Small in benchmarks?

Mistral NeMo Instruct scores HellaSwag: 83.5%, Winogrande: 76.8%, TriviaQA: 73.8%, CommonSenseQA: 70.4%, MMLU: 68.0%.

Is Mistral NeMo Instruct cheaper than Mistral Small?

Mistral NeMo Instruct is 10.5x cheaper for input tokens. Mistral NeMo Instruct costs $0.02/M input and $0.03/M output via deepinfra. Mistral Small costs $0.20/M input and $0.60/M output via mistral.

What are the context window sizes for Mistral NeMo Instruct and Mistral Small?

Mistral NeMo Instruct supports 131K tokens and Mistral Small supports 33K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Mistral NeMo Instruct and Mistral Small?

Key differences include context window (131K vs 33K), input pricing ($0.02 vs $0.20/M), licensing (Apache 2.0 vs Mistral Research License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

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