API cost decision in 10 seconds

New🔥Step 5 Preview vs NewMistral Large 4

Pick Mistral Large 4 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-10-08T20:07:22Z Data confirmed: 2026-10-15T01:07:46Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Mistral Large 4 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Large 4 is estimated at $1.73 vs $2.35 for Step 5 Preview, saving $0.62 (26.6% lower).

Cost-first pickMistral Large 4

Context-first pickMistral Large 4

Sample savings$0.6226.6%

10x traffic gap$6.25

Mistral Large 4 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $6.25. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

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

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Step 5 Preview	Mistral Large 4
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Mistral Large 4	$6.35	$4.45
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Mistral Large 4	$3.7	$2.77
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Mistral Large 4	$14.5	$11.13

Cheaper input Mistral Large 4 $1 vs $0.68 / 1M

Mistral Large 4 is $0.32 cheaper per 1M input tokens (32% lower; 1.47x difference).

Cheaper output Mistral Large 4 $2.7 vs $2.09 / 1M

Mistral Large 4 is $0.61 cheaper per 1M output tokens (22.6% lower; 1.29x difference).

Larger context Mistral Large 4 1M vs 1.05M

Mistral Large 4 has 48.58K more context (1.05x larger).

Sample workload Mistral Large 4 $2.35 vs $1.73

Mistral Large 4 is $0.62 cheaper on the standard workload (26.6% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Step 5 Preview Calculating… Estimated API cost

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

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $2.35 for Step 5 Preview and $1.73 for Mistral Large 4.

Best Fit

Choose Step 5 Preview when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose Mistral Large 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 Large 4 is estimated at $1.73 vs $2.35 for Step 5 Preview, saving $0.62 (26.6% lower).
Mistral Large 4 is $0.62 cheaper on the standard workload (26.6% lower).
Mistral Large 4 is $0.32 cheaper per 1M input tokens (32% lower; 1.47x difference).
Mistral Large 4 is $0.61 cheaper per 1M output tokens (22.6% lower; 1.29x difference).
Mistral Large 4 has 48.58K more context (1.05x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	New🔥Step 5 Preview (StepFun)	NewMistral Large 4 (Mistral)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$1	$0.68
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$2.7	$2.09
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$2.35	$1.73
Context Window	1M	1.05M
Release Date	2026-10-08	2026-10-06
Popularity	#2

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Mistral Large 4	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mistral Large 4 is estimated at $1.73 vs $2.35 for Step 5 Preview, saving $0.62 (26.6% lower).
High-volume input processing	Mistral Large 4	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Mistral Large 4	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Mistral Large 4	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Step 3.5 Flash can replace Step 5 Preview when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.25.
Step 3.7 Flash can replace Step 5 Preview when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.77.
Mistral Nemo can replace Mistral Large 4 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.04.
Mistral Small 3 can replace Mistral Large 4 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.

Larger context near this budget

Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Llama 4 Scout offers 1.31M context with $0.47 sample workload cost.
MiMo-V2.6-Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.28 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #3
MiMo-V2.6-Flash · Xiaomi · #4
Hy4 preview · Tencent · #5

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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

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StepFun catalog

Review all tracked StepFun 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.

Open Mistral models

Step 5 Preview

Step 5 Preview is StepFun's flagship model for agentic work, built on a sparse Mixture-of-Experts architecture (27B active / 600B total parameters). It performs strongly in software engineering and professional...

Mistral Large 4

Mistral Large 4 is a frontier multimodal (text and image input) model from Mistral AI built for reasoning, coding, and agentic workloads. It offers a 1M-token context window with up...