Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 4
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (2026) and Mistral Small 4 (2026) are general-purpose language models from AI at Meta and MistralAI. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct ships a not-yet-sourced context window, while Mistral Small 4 ships a 256k-token context window. On pricing, Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15/1M input tokens versus $0.24/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Mistral Small 4 is ~60% cheaper at $0.15/1M; pay for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct only for provider fit.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-01-01 | 2026-03-16 |
| Context window | — | 256k |
| Parameters | — | 119B (6.5B active) |
| Architecture | - | moe |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0 |
| Knowledge cutoff | - | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.24/1M tokens | $0.15/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.97/1M tokens | $0.6/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Function calling | No | Yes |
| Tool use | No | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on vision: Mistral Small 4, function calling: Mistral Small 4, tool use: Mistral Small 4, and structured outputs: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct. Both models share multimodal input, 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, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct lists $0.24/1M input and $0.97/1M 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 $0.17 per million blended tokens. Availability is 1 providers versus 2, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct when provider fit are central to the workload. Choose Mistral Small 4 when vision-heavy evaluation, lower input-token cost, and broader provider choice 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 is cheaper, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.24/1M input and $0.97/1M 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 Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 4 open source?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is listed under Proprietary. 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, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 has the clearer documented vision signal in this comparison. If vision is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for multimodal input, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 4?
Both Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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.
Which is better for function calling, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 has the clearer documented function calling signal in this comparison. If function calling is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 4?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is available on AWS Bedrock. Mistral Small 4 is available on OpenRouter and NVIDIA NIM. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-05-11. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.