Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
| Signal | Mistral Small 4 | Delta | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 83 | -- | |
Pricing | 99 | +5 | |
Context window size | 86 | -9 | |
Recency | 90 | -10 | |
Output Capacity | 85 | +3 | |
| Overall Result | 2 wins | of 5 | 2 wins |
Score History
40
current score
Tied
right now
40
current score
Mistral Small 4
Mistral AI
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Alibaba
Mistral Small 4 saves you $455.00/month
That's $5460.00/year compared to Qwen3.8 Max (0902) at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 40 | 40 | -- |
| Rank | #343 | #250 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Quality Rank | #343 | #250 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Adoption Rank | #343 | #250 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 262K | 1000K | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Pricing | $0.15/$0.60/M | $2.00/$6.00/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 83 | 83 | Mistral Small 4 |
| Pricing | 99 | 94 | Mistral Small 4 |
| Context window size | 86 | 95 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Recency | 90 | 100 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Output Capacity | 85 | 82 | Mistral Small 4 |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 40/100 (rank #343), placing it in the top -18% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 40/100 (rank #250), placing it in the top 14% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 0-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Choose Mistral Small 4 when you need:
- High-volume production workloads where API costs must be minimized
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
- Self-hosted deployments where you need full control over the model
Choose Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need:
- Processing long documents or large codebases (1000K token context)
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Mistral Small 4 offers 91% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $11.25/month with Mistral Small 4 vs $120.00/month with Qwen3.8 Max (0902) - a $108.75 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Mistral Small 4 also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1000K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($0.60/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (40/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) are extremely close in overall performance (only 0 points apart). Your best choice depends entirely on which specific strengths matter most for your use case.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
Mistral Small 4
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Mistral Small 4
91% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Mistral Small 4
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Mistral Small 4
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Mistral Small 4
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Mistral AI
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Cost - 91% lower pricing; better value at scale
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input) | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
Mistral Small 4
Mistral AI
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Alibaba
Mistral Small 4 saves you $9.81/month
That's 91% cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max (0902) at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 262K | 1M |
| Max Output Tokens | 209,715 | 131,072 |
| Open Source | Yes | No |
| Created | Mar 16, 2026 | Sep 3, 2026 |