Llama Guard 4 12B vs Mistral Magistral Small 2509
Llama Guard 4 12B (2025) and Mistral Magistral Small 2509 (2025) are general-purpose language models from AI at Meta and MistralAI. Llama Guard 4 12B ships a 164k-token context window, while Mistral Magistral Small 2509 ships a not-yet-sourced context window. On pricing, Llama Guard 4 12B costs $0.18/1M input tokens versus $0.50/1M 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.
Llama Guard 4 12B is ~178% cheaper at $0.18/1M; pay for Mistral Magistral Small 2509 only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Llama Guard 4 12B | Mistral Magistral Small 2509 |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | provider-routed production | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | RAG, Long context, and Classification | General |
| Context window | 164k | — |
| Cheapest output | $0.18/1M tokens | $1.50/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 3 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 rows | 0 rows |
Decision tradeoffs
- Llama Guard 4 12B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Llama Guard 4 12B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.18/1M tokens.
- Llama Guard 4 12B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and procurement flexibility.
- Llama Guard 4 12B uniquely exposes Structured outputs in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Llama Guard 4 12B for RAG, Long context, and Classification.
- Use Mistral Magistral Small 2509 when your own prompt tests beat the comparison signals; the local data does not show a decisive standalone advantage yet.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Llama Guard 4 12B
$189
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Mistral Magistral Small 2509
$775
Cheapest tracked route/tier: AWS Bedrock
Estimated monthly gap: $586. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Llama Guard 4 12B and Mistral Magistral Small 2509; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Mistral Magistral Small 2509 is $1.32/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Check replacement coverage for Structured outputs before moving production traffic.
- No overlapping tracked provider route is sourced for Mistral Magistral Small 2509 and Llama Guard 4 12B; plan for SDK, billing, or endpoint changes.
- Llama Guard 4 12B is $1.32/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Llama Guard 4 12B adds Structured outputs in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-04-05 | 2025-09-01 |
| Context window | 164k | — |
| Parameters | 12B | 24B |
| Architecture | decoder only | - |
| License | Llama 2 Community | Apache 2.0(OSI) |
| Openness | Open weights | Open source |
| Commercial use | Commercial use with conditions | Commercial use allowed |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2024-08 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Llama Guard 4 12B | Mistral Magistral Small 2509 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.18/1M tokens | $0.50/1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.18/1M tokens | $1.50/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Llama Guard 4 12B | Mistral Magistral Small 2509 |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Function calling | No | No |
| Tool use | No | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark rows are currently sourced for this pair.
Deep dive
The capability footprint differs most on structured outputs: Llama Guard 4 12B. Both models share the core language-model surface, 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 Guard 4 12B lists $0.18/1M input and $0.18/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider, while Mistral Magistral Small 2509 lists $0.50/1M input and $1.50/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Llama Guard 4 12B lower by about $0.62 per million blended tokens. Availability is 3 providers versus 2, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Llama Guard 4 12B when provider fit, lower input-token cost, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Mistral Magistral Small 2509 when provider fit 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. It also helps separate model capability from provider packaging, which can change cost and latency.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Llama Guard 4 12B or Mistral Magistral Small 2509?
Llama Guard 4 12B is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Llama Guard 4 12B costs $0.18/1M input and $0.18/1M output tokens. Mistral Magistral Small 2509 costs $0.50/1M input and $1.50/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Llama Guard 4 12B or Mistral Magistral Small 2509 open source?
Llama Guard 4 12B is listed under Llama 2 Community. Mistral Magistral Small 2509 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 structured outputs, Llama Guard 4 12B or Mistral Magistral Small 2509?
Llama Guard 4 12B has the clearer documented structured outputs signal in this comparison. If structured outputs is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Llama Guard 4 12B and Mistral Magistral Small 2509?
Llama Guard 4 12B is available on NVIDIA NIM, Replicate API, and OpenRouter. Mistral Magistral Small 2509 is available on AWS Bedrock and Vercel AI Gateway. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
When should I pick Llama Guard 4 12B over Mistral Magistral Small 2509?
Llama Guard 4 12B is ~178% cheaper at $0.18/1M; pay for Mistral Magistral Small 2509 only for provider fit. If your workload also depends on provider fit, start with Llama Guard 4 12B; if it depends on provider fit, run the same evaluation with Mistral Magistral Small 2509.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-05-22. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.