Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Mistral Small 4 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, IFBench). Qwen3.8-Flash-Next significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Mistral Small 4
- you want predictable pricing at $0.15/M input and $0.60/M output
Choose Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral Small 4 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, IFBench).
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next has 61.0B more parameters than Mistral Small 4, making it 51.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Mistral Small 4 specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Mistral Small 4 specifies output context (256,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Mistral Small 4
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Small 4 is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next uses Qwen Community License 1.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Qwen Community License 1.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Small 4 was released on 2026-03-16, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next was released on 2026-08-26.
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 5 months newer than Mistral Small 4.
Mar 16, 2026
5 months ago
Aug 26, 2026
0 days ago
5mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next.