ResearchLLM Verifications Leaderboard

Data as of · 78 models, 80 questions · reviewed by Suhas Bhairav · methodology

Head to head · tested 27 Oct 2026

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: accuracy, speed and price

Mistral Large 4 is more accurate; Mistral Small 4 is cheaper.

MistralMistral Large 450.0% score · #47$0.011 per question83 tok/sMistralMistral Small 432.5% score · #62$0.0019 per question170 tok/s

Verdict

Built from the measurements below

  • Mistral Large 4 is more accurate: 50.0% against 32.5% on the same 80 questions, a 17.5-point gap that is statistically significant.
  • Mistral Small 4 is 6.1× cheaper per question as billed ($0.0019 vs $0.011), reasoning tokens included.
  • Mistral Small 4 generates text 2.0× faster: 170 tokens per second against 83.
  • Mistral Small 4 starts answering sooner: 0.5 s to the first token, against 1.1 s for Mistral Large 4.
  • Mistral Large 4 accepts more context: 1M tokens against 262k.

Which should you choose?

Choose Mistral Large 4 for the most accurate answers of the two and a 1M-token context window. Choose Mistral Small 4 for the lower cost per correct answer ($0.0057 against $0.023), faster streaming, a quicker first token and open weights you can run yourself. The widest subject gap is in science: Mistral Large 4 answered 20 of 30 correctly, Mistral Small 4 7 of 30. With so few questions per subject, treat this as a lead to test on your own prompts, not a result.

Accuracy gap +17.5 points (z = 2.25). A winner is called only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.

Head to head

Same questions, same prompt, same API

MeasureMistral Large 4Mistral Small 4Edge
Verification scoreHigher is better50.0%32.5%Mistral Large 4
Cost per questionLower is better$0.011$0.0019Mistral Small 4
Output speedHigher is better83170Mistral Small 4
Time to first tokenLower is better1.1 s0.5 sMistral Small 4
End-to-end response timeLower is better9.5 s4.5 sMistral Small 4
Tokens per questionLower is better2,6133,021Mistral Large 4
Context windowHigher is better1M262kMistral Large 4

Side by side

Bars are scaled to the larger of the two values. The winner on each measure is marked in bold.

Every measure

Mistral Large 4 first, Mistral Small 4 second

Verification scorehigher is better
Mistral Large 450.0%
Mistral Small 432.5%
Cost per questionlower is better
Mistral Large 4$0.011
Mistral Small 4$0.0019
Output speedhigher is better
Mistral Large 483
Mistral Small 4170
Time to first tokenlower is better
Mistral Large 41.1 s
Mistral Small 40.5 s
End-to-end response timelower is better
Mistral Large 49.5 s
Mistral Small 44.5 s
Tokens per questionlower is better
Mistral Large 42,613
Mistral Small 43,021
Context windowhigher is better
Mistral Large 41M
Mistral Small 4262k

Score vs. cost per question

Both models in color, every other model in grey

Most attractive quadrant0255075100$0.00001$0.0001$0.001$0.01$0.10Cost per question (USD, log) →Verification score (%) →Qwen3.8 2.4T A95BCommand AReka Flash 3Gemma 4 26B A4BGemma 4 31BQwen3.5 397B A17BHermes 4 405BMuse WonderGrok 4.7o3gpt-oss-20bMinistral 3 3B 2512Nova Micro 1.0Phi 4Granite 4.2 8BHy3GLM 5.3 FlashSolar Pro 4Trinity Large ThinkingMiniMax M3Mistral Large 4Claude Opus 5.5GPT-6.1 SolGemini 4 ArgonGPT-5.4GPT-6 Lunagpt-oss-120bLlama 4 Maverick

Specifications and pricing

From OpenRouter's catalogue, plus the leaderboard's test dates

SpecificationMistral Large 4Mistral Small 4
CreatorMistralMistral
Released6 Oct 202616 Mar 2026
Weights—Open weights
ReasoningYesYes
Inputtext, imagetext, image
Outputtexttext
Context window1M tokens262k tokens
Knowledge cutoff——
List price in / out per 1M$1.36 / $4.18$0.15 / $0.6
Blended price per 1M (3:1)$2.06$0.26
Cheapest hostMistral · $1.36 / $4.18Mistral · $0.15 / $0.6
Hosts on OpenRouter11
Last tested26 Oct 202626 Oct 2026

Compare any two models →

Mistral Large 4 vs Mistral Small 4: frequently asked questions

Is Mistral Large 4 better than Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Large 4 is more accurate: it answered 40 of 80 questions correctly (50.0%) against 26 of 80 (32.5%) for Mistral Small 4. Mistral Large 4 is more accurate; Mistral Small 4 is cheaper.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper: $0.0019 per question as billed, against $0.011. List prices: Mistral Large 4 $1.36 in / $4.18 out, Mistral Small 4 $0.15 in / $0.6 out per million tokens.
Which is faster, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 is faster at 170 output tokens per second, against 83. Time to first token: 1.1 s for Mistral Large 4, 0.5 s for Mistral Small 4.
Which has the larger context window, Mistral Large 4 or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Large 4, with 1M tokens against 262k.