API cost decision in 10 seconds

Qianfan-OCR-Fast vs Mistral Small 4

Pick Mistral Small 4 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated:  Data confirmed:  Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Mistral Small 4 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 4 is estimated at $0.45 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.64 (78.4% lower).

Cost-first pickMistral Small 4
Context-first pickMistral Small 4
Sample savings$1.6478.4%
10x traffic gap$16.35

Mistral Small 4 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $16.35. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Mistral Small 4 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shapeToken mixBetter pickQianfan-OCR-FastMistral Small 4
Input-heavy / RAG5M input + 500K outputMistral Small 4$4.81$1.05
Balanced workload1M input + 1M outputMistral Small 4$3.49$0.75
Output-heavy chatbot1M input + 5M outputMistral Small 4$14.73$3.15
Cheaper input Mistral Small 4 $0.68 vs $0.15 / 1M

Mistral Small 4 is $0.53 cheaper per 1M input tokens (77.9% lower; 4.53x difference).

Cheaper output Mistral Small 4 $2.81 vs $0.6 / 1M

Mistral Small 4 is $2.21 cheaper per 1M output tokens (78.6% lower; 4.68x difference).

Larger context Mistral Small 4 65.54K vs 262.14K

Mistral Small 4 has 196.61K more context (4x larger).

Sample workload Mistral Small 4 $2.08 vs $0.45

Mistral Small 4 is $1.64 cheaper on the standard workload (78.4% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.
Qianfan-OCR-Fast Calculating… Estimated API cost
Mistral Small 4 Calculating… Estimated API cost
Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Mistral Small 4 has the lower input price; Mistral Small 4 has the lower output price; Mistral Small 4 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Mistral Small 4 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast and $0.45 for Mistral Small 4.

Best Fit

Choose Qianfan-OCR-Fast when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose Mistral Small 4 when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes
  • On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 4 is estimated at $0.45 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.64 (78.4% lower).
  • Mistral Small 4 is $1.64 cheaper on the standard workload (78.4% lower).
  • Mistral Small 4 is $0.53 cheaper per 1M input tokens (77.9% lower; 4.53x difference).
  • Mistral Small 4 is $2.21 cheaper per 1M output tokens (78.6% lower; 4.68x difference).
  • Mistral Small 4 has 196.61K more context (4x larger).
Head-to-Head Specs
FeatureQianfan-OCR-Fast
(Baidu)		Mistral Small 4
(Mistral)
Input Price
prompt tokens per 1M		$0.68$0.15
Completion Price
per 1M tokens		$2.81$0.6
Sample Workload Cost
1M input + 500K output		$2.08$0.45
Context Window65.54K262.14K
Release Date

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use caseBetter pickWhy
Budget-constrained productionMistral Small 4On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 4 is estimated at $0.45 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $1.64 (78.4% lower).
High-volume input processingMistral Small 4Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbotsMistral Small 4Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document workMistral Small 4A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps
  • ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B Thinking can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
  • ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
  • ERNIE 4.5 VL 28B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.42.
  • ERNIE 4.5 300B A47B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.83.
Larger context near this budget
  • Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
  • Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
  • Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
  • DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

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Baidu catalog

Review all tracked Baidu models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

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Mistral catalog

Check other Mistral models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

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Qianfan-OCR-Fast

Qianfan-OCR-Fast is a domain-specific multimodal large model purpose-built for OCR. By leveraging specialized OCR training data while preserving versatile multimodal intelligence, it provides a powerful performance upgrade over Qianfan-OCR.

Mistral Small 4

Mistral Small 4 is the next major release in the Mistral Small family, unifying the capabilities of several flagship Mistral models into a single system. It combines strong reasoning from...