API cost decision in 10 seconds

Mistral Small 4 vs Solar Pro 3

The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.

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

Budget verdict

The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.

Both models are estimated at $0.45 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

Cost-first pickTie

Context-first pickMistral Small 4

Sample savings$00%

10x traffic gap$0

Context-window winner: Mistral Small 4. Cost does not separate this pair on the standard workload, so the next decision point is context window and model behavior.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

The two models stay tied across the input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Mistral Small 4	Solar Pro 3
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Tie	$1.05	$1.05
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Tie	$0.75	$0.75
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Tie	$3.15	$3.15

Cheaper input Tie $0.15 vs $0.15 / 1M

Both models report the same input price at $0.15 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Tie $0.6 vs $0.6 / 1M

Both models report the same output price at $0.6 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Mistral Small 4 262.14K vs 128K

Mistral Small 4 has 134.14K more context (2.05x larger).

Sample workload Tie $0.45 vs $0.45

Both models have the same estimated cost for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload: $0.45.

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

Solar Pro 3 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

both models tie on input price; both models tie on output price; Mistral Small 4 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, the standard workload cost is tied.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.45 for Mistral Small 4 and $0.45 for Solar Pro 3.

Best Fit

Choose Mistral Small 4 when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Solar Pro 3 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes

Both models are estimated at $0.45 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Both models have the same estimated cost for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload: $0.45.
Both models report the same input price at $0.15 per 1M tokens.
Both models report the same output price at $0.6 per 1M tokens.
Mistral Small 4 has 134.14K more context (2.05x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Mistral Small 4 (Mistral)	Solar Pro 3 (Upstage)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.15	$0.15
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.6	$0.6
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.45	$0.45
Context Window	262.14K	128K
Release Date	2026-03-16	2026-01-27

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Tie	Both models are estimated at $0.45 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
High-volume input processing	Tie	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Tie	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Mistral Small 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.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

No popular competitor is currently available.

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

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

Mistral catalog

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

Open Mistral models

Upstage catalog

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

Open Upstage models

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...

Solar Pro 3

Solar Pro 3 is Upstage's powerful Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model. With 102B total parameters and 12B active parameters per forward pass, it delivers exceptional performance while maintaining computational efficiency. Optimized...