AI model comparison

Mistral Small 4 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite

Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.

Mistral Small 4 is the next major release in the Mistral Small family, unifying the capabilities of several flagship Mistral models into a single system.

Input / 1M
$0.15
Output / 1M
$0.60
Context
262K

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is a lightweight reasoning model in the Gemini 2.5 family, optimized for ultra-low latency and cost efficiency.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is scheduled to be retired on October 20, 2026. Consider Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite instead.

Input / 1M
$0.10
Output / 1M
$0.40
Context
1.05M

At a glance

Quick verdict

How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.

Lower price

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Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite

1.5x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

mistralai logo

Mistral Small 4

11.3 vs 10.4 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

google logo

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite

1.05M vs 262K tokens

Newer release

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Mistral Small 4

Released March 16, 2026

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores

Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.

Intelligence index

mistralai logoMistral Small 411.3
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite10.4

Coding index

mistralai logoMistral Small 426.6
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash LiteNot available

Agentic index

mistralai logoMistral Small 40.8
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash LiteNot available

Pricing

Mistral Small 4 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricmistralai logoMistral Small 4google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.15$0.10
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$0.60$0.40
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens$0.02$0.01
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot available$0.08
Web searchPer requestNot available$0.014

What it costs in practice

Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.

Chat message

2K in, 500 out

mistralai logoMistral Small 4$0.60
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite$0.40

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

mistralai logoMistral Small 4$6.90$2.85 cached
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite$4.60$1.90 cached

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

mistralai logoMistral Small 4$23.70$3.45 cached
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite$15.80$2.30 cached

Specs

Context window and capabilities

How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.

Metricmistralai logoMistral Small 4google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite
Context window262K tokens1.05M tokens
Max output210K tokens66K tokens
Input typesImage, TextAudio, File, Image, Text, Video
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsHigh, NoneNot available
Default reasoning effortHighNot available
Release dateMarch 16, 2026July 22, 2025

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricmistralai logoMistral Small 4google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite
Tool callingSupportedSupported
Structured outputsSupportedSupported
JSON modeSupportedSupported
ReasoningSupportedSupported
TemperatureSupportedSupported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedSupported
Verbosity controlNot supportedNot supported

Our take

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is 1.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Mistral Small 4 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (11.3 vs 10.4). Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite has the larger context window (1.05M vs 262K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Mistral Small 4 or Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite cheaper?

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.40 per 1M output tokens, while Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, Mistral Small 4 or Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite?

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 262K for Mistral Small 4.

Is Mistral Small 4 smarter than Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Mistral Small 4 scores 11.3 and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite scores 10.4, putting Mistral Small 4 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.

Can I use Mistral Small 4 and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Mistral Small 4 and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite answer side by side and keep the better response.

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Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to Mistral Small 4 and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.