API cost decision in 10 seconds

Mistral Small 4 vs GPT-5.4

Pick Mistral Small 4 for lower cost; pick GPT-5.4 only if the larger context window matters more.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-26T11:08:00Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Mistral Small 4 for lower cost; pick GPT-5.4 only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 4 is estimated at $0.45 vs $10 for GPT-5.4, saving $9.55 (95.5% lower).

Cost-first pickMistral Small 4

Context-first pickGPT-5.4

Sample savings$9.5595.5%

10x traffic gap$95.5

GPT-5.4 has more context, but Mistral Small 4 saves $9.55 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $95.5. 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 shape	Token mix	Better pick	Mistral Small 4	GPT-5.4
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Mistral Small 4	$1.05	$20
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Mistral Small 4	$0.75	$17.5
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Mistral Small 4	$3.15	$77.5

Cheaper input Mistral Small 4 $0.15 vs $2.5 / 1M

Mistral Small 4 is $2.35 cheaper per 1M input tokens (94% lower; 16.7x difference).

Cheaper output Mistral Small 4 $0.6 vs $15 / 1M

Mistral Small 4 is $14.4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (96% lower; 25x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.4 262.14K vs 1.05M

GPT-5.4 has 787.86K more context (4.01x larger).

Sample workload Mistral Small 4 $0.45 vs $10

Mistral Small 4 is $9.55 cheaper on the standard workload (95.5% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Mistral Small 4 Calculating… Estimated API cost

GPT-5.4 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; GPT-5.4 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 $0.45 for Mistral Small 4 and $10 for GPT-5.4.

Best Fit

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

Choose GPT-5.4 when you care most about larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 4 is estimated at $0.45 vs $10 for GPT-5.4, saving $9.55 (95.5% lower).
Mistral Small 4 is $9.55 cheaper on the standard workload (95.5% lower).
Mistral Small 4 is $2.35 cheaper per 1M input tokens (94% lower; 16.7x difference).
Mistral Small 4 is $14.4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (96% lower; 25x difference).
GPT-5.4 has 787.86K more context (4.01x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Mistral Small 4 (Mistral)	GPT-5.4 (OpenAI)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.15	$2.5
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.6	$15
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.45	$10
Context Window	262.14K	1.05M
Release Date	2026-03-16	2026-03-05

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Mistral Small 4	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Small 4 is estimated at $0.45 vs $10 for GPT-5.4, saving $9.55 (95.5% lower).
High-volume input processing	Mistral Small 4	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Mistral Small 4	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	GPT-5.4	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Mistral Nemo can replace Mistral Small 4 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.04.
Mistral Small 3 can replace Mistral Small 4 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.
Ministral 3 3B 2512 can replace Mistral Small 4 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.15.
Mistral Small 3.2 24B can replace Mistral Small 4 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.17.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

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Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Mistral catalog

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OpenAI catalog

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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...

GPT-5.4

GPT-5.4 is OpenAI’s latest frontier model, unifying the Codex and GPT lines into a single system. It features a 1M+ token context window (922K input, 128K output) with support for...