GPT-6 Astra vs Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 4
Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 68, GPT-6 Astra 68, Mistral Large 4 67). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-6 Astra
68/100- ECI169.1
- Price$10.00 / $50.00
- Context1.05M
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
68/100- ECI150.5
- Price$0.58 / $1.44
- Context1.05M
Mistral AIMistral Large 4
67/100- ECI150.6
- Price$0.70 / $2.10
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 68/100, GPT-6 Astra 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-6 Astra for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-6 AstraCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-6 Astra 169.1 · Mistral Large 4 150.6 · Inkling Small 150.5
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Mistral Large 4 $1.05 · GPT-6 Astra $20.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameGPT-6 Astra 1,050,000 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Mistral Large 4 1,048,576 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-6 Astra and Inkling SmallGPT-6 Astra: Text, Images, PDFs · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Mistral Large 4: Text, Images
- Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | GPT-6 Astra | Inkling Small | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 100 | 77 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 0 | 52 | 47 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 70 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 68/100 | 68/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Mistral Large 4Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 169.1 (best) | 150.5 | 150.6 |
| ECI rank | #1 of 165 (best) | #58 of 165 | #57 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 95.8% (best) | 88.5% | 88.1% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 93.7% (best) | 46.3% | 58.6% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% (best) | 90.0% | 98.3% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 75.6% (best) | 19.1% | 20.0% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $10.00 | $0.58 (best) | $0.70 |
| Output | $50.00 | $1.44 (best) | $2.10 |
| Cached input | $1.00 | $0.116 | $0.07 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $20.00 | $0.795 (best) | $1.05 |
| Long-context rate | Over 272K: $20.00 / $75.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Thinking Machines API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gpt-6-astra | thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small | mistral-large-4 |
| API providers | 37 (best) | 12 | 15 |
| Released | Sep 4, 2026 | Jul 30, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 30, 2026 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GPT-6 Astra$200.00
- Inkling Small$8.68
- Mistral Large 4$11.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-6 Astra, Inkling Small or Mistral Large 4?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Inkling Small 68/100, GPT-6 Astra 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-6 Astra for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-6 Astra, Inkling Small or Mistral Large 4?
Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Mistral Large 4 costs $0.70 input / $2.10 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); GPT-6 Astra costs $10.00 input / $50.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $1.05 for Mistral Large 4 (1.3× as much) and $20.00 for GPT-6 Astra (25× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-6 Astra scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-6 Astra 169.1 (#1 of 165), Mistral Large 4 150.6 (#57 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (165.9–174.3 vs 147.4–153.5), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-6 Astra 95.8%, Inkling Small 88.5%, Mistral Large 4 88.1%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-6 Astra 93.7%, Mistral Large 4 58.6%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-6 Astra 100%, Mistral Large 4 98.3%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-6 Astra 75.6%, Mistral Large 4 20.0%, Inkling Small 19.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-6 Astra, Inkling Small and Mistral Large 4 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-6 Astra leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Their context windows are effectively the same size: GPT-6 Astra 1,050,000, Inkling Small 1,048,576 and Mistral Large 4 1,048,576 tokens. Maximum output per response: GPT-6 Astra up to 128,000, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Mistral Large 4 up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-6 Astra accepts text, images and PDFs; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Mistral Large 4 accepts text and images. GPT-6 Astra handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; GPT-6 Astra and Mistral Large 4 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Large 4 is the newest, released Oct 6, 2026. GPT-6 Astra came out Sep 4, 2026; Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-6 Astra Apr 30, 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
