LLM Reference

Claude 3.5 Haiku vs Mistral Small 4

Claude 3.5 Haiku (2024) and Mistral Small 4 (2026) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and MistralAI. Claude 3.5 Haiku ships a 200k-token context window, while Mistral Small 4 ships a 256k-token context window. On pricing, Mistral Small 4 costs $0.10/1M input tokens versus $0.80/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.

Mistral Small 4 is ~700% cheaper at $0.10/1M; pay for Claude 3.5 Haiku only for coding workflow support.

Decision scorecard

Local evidence first
SignalClaude 3.5 HaikuMistral Small 4
Best forreasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and provider-routed productionmultimodal apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production
Decision fitCoding, RAG, and AgentsRAG, Agents, and Long context
Context window200k256k
Cheapest output$4/1M tokens$0.30/1M tokens
Provider routes6 tracked3 tracked
Shared benchmarks0 shared0 shared

Decision tradeoffs

Choose Claude 3.5 Haiku when...
  • Claude 3.5 Haiku has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
  • Claude 3.5 Haiku uniquely exposes Reasoning, Structured outputs, and Code execution in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Claude 3.5 Haiku for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Choose Mistral Small 4 when...
  • Mistral Small 4 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
  • Mistral Small 4 has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.30/1M tokens.
  • Mistral Small 4 uniquely exposes Multimodal and JSON / Tool use in local model data.
  • Local decision data tags Mistral Small 4 for RAG, Agents, and Long context.

Monthly cost at traffic

Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.

Lower estimate Mistral Small 4

Claude 3.5 Haiku

$1,640

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic

Mistral Small 4

$155

Cheapest tracked route/tier: Mistral AI Studio

Estimated monthly gap: $1,485. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.

Switch friction

Claude 3.5 Haiku -> Mistral Small 4
  • Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Mistral Small 4 is $3.70/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
  • Check replacement coverage for Reasoning, Structured outputs, and Code execution before moving production traffic.
  • Mistral Small 4 adds Multimodal and JSON / Tool use in local capability data.
Mistral Small 4 -> Claude 3.5 Haiku
  • Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
  • Claude 3.5 Haiku is $3.70/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
  • Check replacement coverage for Multimodal and JSON / Tool use before moving production traffic.
  • Claude 3.5 Haiku adds Reasoning, Structured outputs, and Code execution in local capability data.

Specs

Specification
Released2024-10-222026-03-16
Context window200k256k
Parameters—119B (6.5B active)
ArchitectureDecoder OnlyMixture of Experts
LicenseProprietaryApache 2.0OSI-approved
OpennessProprietaryOpen source
WeightsNot releasedAvailable
CodeUnknownUnknown
Commercial useCommercial use: conditionalCommercial use: permitted
Knowledge cutoff-2025-06

Pricing and availability

Pricing attributeClaude 3.5 HaikuMistral Small 4
Input price$0.80/1M tokens$0.10/1M tokens
Output price$4/1M tokens$0.30/1M tokens
Providers

Capabilities

CapabilityClaude 3.5 HaikuMistral Small 4
VisionYesYes
MultimodalNoYes
ReasoningYesNo
JSON / Tool useNoYes
Structured outputsYesNo
Code executionYesNo
IDE integrationNoNo
Computer useNoNo
Parallel agentsNoNo

Benchmarks

No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.

Continue comparing

Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.