Mistral Small 4 API pricing
Mistral Small 4 from Mistral costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens.
That puts it 12th cheapest of the 60 models tracked here on a blended 3:1 input-to-output rate, or $0.262 per 1M blended tokens. Verified 2026-08-16.
- Input
- $0.15per 1M tokens
- Output
- $0.60per 1M tokens
- Cached input
- None not published
- Batch discount
- None not published
- Price rank
- #12of 60, cheapest first
- Tokens per $1
- 3,809,524at a 3:1 mix
What Mistral Small 4 costs on a real workload
Per-million-token rates are hard to reason about, so here is the same model priced against four concrete monthly workloads. Each row uses this model's own input and output rates against a fixed token mix, with no caching or batch discount applied.
| Workload | Assumption | Monthly cost | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot | 50,000 conversations/month at 3K input and 500 output tokens each | $37.50 | $450.00 |
| RAG document search | 200,000 queries/month at 6K retrieved-context input and 400 output tokens | $228.00 | $2,736 |
| Coding agent | 5,000 runs/month at 60K input and 8K output tokens per run | $69.00 | $828.00 |
| Bulk classification | 5,000,000 items/month at 400 input and 20 output tokens each | $360.00 | $4,320 |
Your mix will differ. The API cost calculator takes your own token counts, and the cost per request calculator scales a single call up to per-1,000 and per-month totals.
Cheaper alternatives to Mistral Small 4
These are the closest cheaper options from other providers, ordered by how near they sit to Mistral Small 4 on the blended rate. Closer is usually a more realistic swap: the further down this list you go, the more capability you are likely trading away.
| Model | Provider | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Cheaper by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sonar Small Online | Perplexity | $0.20 | $0.20 | 1.3x |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | DeepSeek | $0.14 | $0.28 | 1.5x |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | $0.10 | $0.40 | 1.5x | |
| GPT-4.1 nano | OpenAI | $0.10 | $0.40 | 1.5x |
| Step 3.5 Flash | StepFun | $0.10 | $0.30 | 1.7x |
Before switching, price the move properly: the model switching savings calculator puts two models against the same workload and shows the annual difference.
Models priced near Mistral Small 4
If cost is roughly fixed and you are choosing on capability instead, these are the models sitting closest to Mistral Small 4 on price.
| Model | Provider | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Blended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 4.1 Fast | xAI | $0.20 | $0.50 | $0.275 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | Meta | $0.20 | $0.60 | $0.300 |
| Sonar Small Online | Perplexity | $0.20 | $0.20 | $0.200 |
| GPT-4.1 nano | OpenAI | $0.10 | $0.40 | $0.175 |
About Mistral
Mistral prices aggressively for a Western provider, with a flagship tier that undercuts most competitors' mid tiers.
See every Mistral model and how the lineup is tiered on the Mistral pricing page, or put Mistral Small 4 against all 60 models from all 17 providers on the comparison table.
Mistral Small 4 pricing FAQ
How much does Mistral Small 4 cost per 1M tokens?
Mistral Small 4 costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens. There is no published cached-input rate for this model.
Is Mistral Small 4 expensive compared to other models?
It ranks 12 of 60 on a blended rate that weights input and output 3:1, so 11 tracked models are cheaper and 48 are more expensive. That works out to 4.8x the blended rate of Qwen3.7 Flash, the cheapest model tracked here.
What does a real workload cost on Mistral Small 4?
A support chatbot handling 50,000 conversations a month at 3K input and 500 output tokens each comes to about $37.50 a month. A coding agent doing 5,000 runs at 60K input and 8K output per run comes to about $69.00. Run your own numbers in the API cost calculator.
Why is Mistral Small 4 output more expensive than input?
Output on this model is 4.0x the input rate. Every output token needs its own forward pass through the model, while input tokens are processed in parallel, so output costs more to serve across essentially every provider. It also means a workload's input:output mix, not just its total token count, drives the bill.
What is a cheaper alternative to Mistral Small 4?
Sonar Small Online from Perplexity is the closest cheaper option at $0.20 / $0.20, roughly 1.3x cheaper on a blended basis. Whether it is a real substitute depends on whether your task actually needs the extra capability.