AI model comparison
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Mistral Small 4
Side by side comparison of Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Mistral Small 4 on pricing, benchmark scores, context window, and more.
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is an open mixture-of-experts model from NVIDIA, with 3B active parameters out of 30B total.
- Input / 1M
- $0.07
- Output / 1M
- $0.20
- Context
- 262K
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
Comparing image generators? Compare image models
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
2.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
5.5 vs 4.3 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Tie
262K vs 262K tokens
Newer release
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
Released August 11, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Mistral Small 44.3Coding index
Mistral Small 426.6Agentic index
Mistral Small 40.8Pricing
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Mistral Small 4 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.07 | $0.15 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.20 | $0.60 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.04 | $0.02 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
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
Mistral Small 4$0.60Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Mistral Small 4$6.90$2.85 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Mistral Small 4$23.70$3.45 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 262K tokens |
| Max output | 236K tokens | 210K tokens |
| Input types | Text | Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | High, None |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | High |
| Release date | August 11, 2026 | March 16, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Mistral Small 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Command A+
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Muse Spark 1.3 Contributor
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning vs Solar Mini 4
Mistral Small 4View full model details- Mistral Small 4 vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
- Mistral Small 4 vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Mistral Small 4 vs Command A+
- Mistral Small 4 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
- Mistral Small 4 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Mistral Small 4 vs Hy3
- Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8 Flash
- Mistral Small 4 vs GPT-6 Luna Pro
- Mistral Small 4 vs gpt-oss-120b
Our take
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is 2.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (5.5 vs 4.3). 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 Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Mistral Small 4 cheaper?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Nemotron 3.5 Lightning costs $0.07 per 1M input tokens and $0.20 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, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning or Mistral Small 4?
Nemotron 3.5 Lightning supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 262K for Mistral Small 4.
Is Nemotron 3.5 Lightning smarter than Mistral Small 4?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Nemotron 3.5 Lightning scores 5.5 and Mistral Small 4 scores 4.3, putting Nemotron 3.5 Lightning ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Mistral Small 4 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Mistral Small 4 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and Mistral Small 4 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.