Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Mistral Small 4
Claude 3.5 Sonnet (2024) and Mistral Small 4 (2026) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and MistralAI. Claude 3.5 Sonnet ships a 200K-token context window, while Mistral Small 4 ships a 256k-token context window. On pricing, Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Mistral Small 4 is ~1900% cheaper at $0.15/1M; pay for Claude 3.5 Sonnet only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2024-06-20 | 2026-03-16 |
| Context window | 200K | 256k |
| Parameters | 70B | 119B (6.5B active) |
| Architecture | decoder only | moe |
| License | Unknown | Apache 2.0 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-04 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.15/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $0.6/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Function calling | Yes | Yes |
| Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on reasoning mode: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, tool use: Mistral Small 4, structured outputs: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and code execution: Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Both models share vision, multimodal input, and function calling, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude 3.5 Sonnet lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens, while Mistral Small 4 lists $0.15/1M input and $0.6/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Mistral Small 4 lower by about $6.31 per million blended tokens. Availability is 6 providers versus 2, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet when coding workflow support and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Mistral Small 4 when long-context analysis, larger context windows, and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship. This keeps the decision grounded in measurable tradeoffs instead of brand-level assumptions.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 supports 256k tokens, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 200K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude 3.5 Sonnet costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15/1M input and $0.6/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Mistral Small 4 open source?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is listed under Unknown. Mistral Small 4 is listed under Apache 2.0. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Mistral Small 4?
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Small 4 expose vision. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Mistral Small 4?
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Small 4 expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface.
Where can I run Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Mistral Small 4?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available on GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenRouter, and Microsoft Foundry. Mistral Small 4 is available on OpenRouter and NVIDIA NIM. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.