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Model comparison

Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Mistral against Qwen, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Mistral

Mistral Small 4

Budget · Open weights

vs

Qwen

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Budget · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationMistral Small 4Qwen 3.8 Flash Next
ProviderMistralQwen
TierBudgetBudget
Context window262K262K
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.15$0.15
Output / 1M tokens$0.60Winner: $0.47
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters119B total / 6.5B active (MoE)125B total / 6B active (MoE) + 51B n-gram embedding table
Reasoning levelsNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video
LicenseApache 2.0qwen-community-1.0
API model idmistral-small-2603qwen3.8-flash
ReleasedMarch 16, 2026August 26, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)11.3Winner: 39.8

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check measuredAt.

Pricing tiers

Mistral Small 4: Mistral first-party API $0.15/$0.60 per MTok. Open weights (Apache 2.0). 119B total / 6.5B active MoE.

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next: Hosted qwen3.8-flash lists $0.15/$0.47 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with a 1M context. The open checkpoint is 262,144 tokens native, extensible to 1M.

BudgetOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Mistral Small 4

Mistral Small 4 is Mistral's low-cost Apache-2.0 MoE — 6.5B active parameters with a 256K context and image input.

Best for

  • Cheap EU-hosted inference
  • Open-weight self-hosting
  • High-volume extraction

Watch out

Small active size: not for hard reasoning or agentic coding; max output is not published.

BudgetOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next is Alibaba's experimental preview of the Qwen 4 architecture — very low active parameters plus an unusual n-gram embedding component for cheap long-context.

Best for

  • Early testing of Qwen 4 architecture
  • Cheap high-throughput work
  • Multimodal input

Watch out

Experimental preview; qwen-community-1.0 license is more restrictive than MIT/Apache; benchmark claims are vendor-reported.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen 3.8 Flash Next is cheaper on output at $0.47 per million tokens against $0.60 for Mistral Small 4 — about 1.3×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, reasoning levels.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Mistral Small 4 · Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Common questions

Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen 3.8 Flash Next

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Mistral Small 4 or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next cheaper for input?
Both cost $0.15 per million input tokens at standard rates, so input price is not a deciding factor between them.
Is Mistral Small 4 or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next cheaper for output?
Qwen 3.8 Flash Next is cheaper at $0.47 per million output tokens, against $0.60 for Mistral Small 4 — roughly 1.3× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Mistral Small 4 has tiered pricing: Mistral first-party API $0.15/$0.60 per MTok. Open weights (Apache 2.0). 119B total / 6.5B active MoE. Qwen 3.8 Flash Next has tiered pricing: Hosted qwen3.8-flash lists $0.15/$0.47 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with a 1M context. The open checkpoint is 262,144 tokens native, extensible to 1M.
Which has the larger context window, Mistral Small 4 or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next?
Both accept about 262K tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.
Should I use Mistral Small 4 or Qwen 3.8 Flash Next?
Both sit in the budget tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Mistral Small 4 suits cheap eu-hosted inference; Qwen 3.8 Flash Next suits early testing of qwen 4 architecture.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

These two models match on every verified catalog figure — the decision comes down to provider preference, availability, and workload fit rather than published numbers.

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