Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Mistral Small 4: cost per task
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper on 13 of 14 tasks and about 2.1x cheaper on average (geometric mean).
| Task | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answer a chat question | 0.41¢ | 0.08¢ | 4.9x |
| Reply to a customer email | 0.15¢ | 0.22¢ | 1.5x |
| Write a 1,500-word blog post | 0.90¢ | 0.47¢ | 1.9x |
| Write 10 product descriptions | 0.74¢ | 0.19¢ | 3.9x |
| Translate 1,000 words | 1.2¢ | 0.75¢ | 1.5x |
| Proofread one page (500 words) | 0.30¢ | 0.26¢ | 1.1x |
| Summarize a 20-page PDF | 0.69¢ | 0.33¢ | 2.1x |
| Extract data from an invoice | 0.38¢ | 0.16¢ | 2.3x |
| Analyze a 200-row spreadsheet | 2.2¢ | 0.71¢ | 3.1x |
| Answer from 5 retrieved documents (RAG) | 0.65¢ | 0.25¢ | 2.6x |
| Classify 100 support tickets | 1.7¢ | 0.46¢ | 3.7x |
| Review 500 lines of code | 0.67¢ | 0.62¢ | 1.1x |
| Write a SQL query | 0.40¢ | 0.19¢ | 2.1x |
| Run a 50-step coding agent | 24¢ | 13¢ | 1.8x |
Specs and list prices
| Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input per 1M | $0.30 | $0.15 |
| Output per 1M | $2.50 | $0.60 |
| Cached input per 1M | $0.03 | $0.015 |
| Context | 1M | 262K |
| Providers | 8 | 4 |
| Reasoning | always | default |
| LMArena Text | 1455 | - |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Mar 16, 2026 |
FAQ
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Mistral Small 4 cheaper?
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper on 13 of 14 tasks and about 2.1x cheaper on average (geometric mean).
How much does Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite cost compared to Mistral Small 4 per token?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: $0.30 input and $2.50 output per 1M tokens. Mistral Small 4: $0.15 input and $0.60 output. Token prices alone mislead - models use different numbers of tokens for the same task, which is what the task table shows.