ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Mistral Large 4 vs Inkling Small

Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 68, Mistral Large 4 67). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Large 4

    Released Oct 6, 2026NewBeta

    67/100
    • ECI150.6
    • Price$0.70 / $2.10
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Mistral Large 4

  2. Thinking Machines

    Inkling Small

    Released Jul 30, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI150.5
    • Price$0.58 / $1.44
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Inkling Small

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Inkling Small 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large 4 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMistral Large 4Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 4 150.6 · Inkling Small 150.5
  • Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Mistral Large 4 $1.05 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameMistral Large 4 1,048,576 · Inkling Small 1,048,576 tokens
  • Widest inputsInkling SmallMistral Large 4: Text, Images · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio
  • Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Large 4Inkling Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7777
Price25%4752
Inputs & features15%7070
Context window10%6161
Overall100%67/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Mistral Large 4 vs Inkling Small specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Large 4Mistral AIInkling SmallThinking Machines
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)150.6 (best)150.5
ECI rank#57 of 165 (best)#58 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.1%88.5% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics58.6% (best)46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics98.3% (best)90.0%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions20.0% (best)19.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70$0.58 (best)
Output$2.10$1.44 (best)
Cached input$0.07 (best)$0.116
Blended (3:1)$1.05$0.795 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIOfficial Thinking Machines API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoYes
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model IDmistral-large-4thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small
API providers15 (best)12
ReleasedOct 6, 2026Jul 30, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Mistral Large 4$11.20
  • Inkling Small$8.68
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Large 4 or Inkling Small?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Inkling Small 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Large 4 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Large 4 or Inkling Small?

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). 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).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Mistral Large 4 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Large 4 150.6 (#57 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.4–153.5 vs 147.7–152.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Inkling Small 88.5%, Mistral Large 4 88.1%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Mistral Large 4 58.6%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Mistral Large 4 98.3%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Mistral Large 4 20.0%, Inkling Small 19.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Large 4 and Inkling Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Large 4 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mistral Large 4 and Inkling Small share the same 1,048,576-token context window. Maximum output per response: Mistral Large 4 up to 262,144, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Large 4 accepts text and images; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio. Inkling Small 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; Mistral Large 4 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Large 4 is the newest, released Oct 6, 2026. Inkling Small came out Jul 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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons