Model comparison - Similar price, same tier
Mistral Small 4 vs Qwen3.8-Flash
Mistral Small 4 is from Mistral AI and Qwen3.8-Flash is from Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). On list price, both charge $0.15 per 1M input tokens, and Qwen3.8-Flash charges 22% less than Mistral Small 4 for output ($0.47 vs $0.60 per 1M tokens). Mistral Small 4 has a 256,000-token context window and Qwen3.8-Flash 1,000,000 tokens; Qwen3.8-Flash returns up to 131,072 output tokens per response, and no primary source states a max output for Mistral Small 4. Mistral Small 4 was released on March 15, 2026 and Qwen3.8-Flash on August 26, 2026. Mistral Small 4 publishes open weights (Apache 2.0); Qwen3.8-Flash is closed-weights.
Last verified from each provider's pricing page. All sources
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.8-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) |
| Input / 1M tokens | $0.15 | $0.15 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $0.60 | $0.47 |
| Cache read / 1M | $0.015 | $0.016 |
| Cache write / 1M | - | $0.20 |
| Batch input / 1M | $0.075 | - |
| Batch output / 1M | $0.30 | - |
| Context window | 256,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Max output | - | 131,072 |
| Release date | ||
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| License | Apache 2.0 | - |
| API model id | mistral-small-2603 | qwen3.8-flash |
| AI Gateway id | mistral/mistral-small | alibaba/qwen3.8-flash |
| Last verified |
Prices in USD per 1M tokens at each provider's standard first-party rate. A dash means the provider does not bill that item separately or no primary page states it.
What each costs in practice
The same three workloads every model page uses, worked from each model's standard list rates. Swap in your own token counts with the math on each model's page.
| Workload | Mistral Small 4 | Qwen3.8-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| One agent session1M input tokens and 100K output tokens, no caching. | $0.21 | $0.197 |
| A chat app10,000 requests a day at 2K input and 500 output tokens each. | $6.00$180.00 per 30-day month | $5.35$160.50 per 30-day month |
| The same session at a 90% cache hit90% of the input is read from the prompt cache. The one-time cache write premium is not included. | $0.0885 | $0.0764 |
Show the math
Mistral Small 4
- One agent sessionInput: 1M x $0.15 = $0.15Output: 0.1M x $0.60 = $0.06
- A chat appInput: 20M x $0.15 = $3.00Output: 5M x $0.60 = $3.00
- The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.015 = $0.0135Uncached input: 0.1M x $0.15 = $0.015Output: 0.1M x $0.60 = $0.06
Qwen3.8-Flash
- One agent sessionInput: 1M x $0.15 = $0.15Output: 0.1M x $0.47 = $0.047
- A chat appInput: 20M x $0.15 = $3.00Output: 5M x $0.47 = $2.35
- The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.016 = $0.0144Uncached input: 0.1M x $0.15 = $0.015Output: 0.1M x $0.47 = $0.047
Benchmarks under the same setting
No board in the benchmark directory lists both Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8-Flash under the same setting, so there is no like-for-like score to show here.
Set them up in your tools
Step-by-step guides whose official docs list Mistral Small 4 or Qwen3.8-Flash by model id.
- Use Mistral in AiderLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in ClineLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in ContinueLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in GitHub CopilotLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in GooseLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in Kilo CodeLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in OpenCodeLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in Roo CodeLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Mistral in ZedLists Mistral Small 4
- Use Qwen in Claude CodeLists Qwen3.8-Flash
- Use Qwen in Codex CLILists Qwen3.8-Flash
- Use Qwen in Kilo CodeLists Qwen3.8-Flash
- Use Qwen in OpenCodeLists Qwen3.8-Flash
Model pages
FAQ
How do Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8-Flash compare on price?
On list price, both charge $0.15 per 1M input tokens, and Qwen3.8-Flash charges 22% less than Mistral Small 4 for output ($0.47 vs $0.60 per 1M tokens). For one agent session of 1M input and 100K output tokens with no caching, that is $0.21 on Mistral Small 4 and $0.197 on Qwen3.8-Flash. Prices are each provider's first-party list rates, verified October 17, 2026 and October 17, 2026.
What are the context windows of Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8-Flash?
Mistral Small 4 has a 256,000-token context window and Qwen3.8-Flash 1,000,000 tokens; Qwen3.8-Flash returns up to 131,072 output tokens per response, and no primary source states a max output for Mistral Small 4.
Are Mistral Small 4 and Qwen3.8-Flash open weights?
Mistral Small 4's weights are published at huggingface.co under the Apache 2.0. Qwen3.8-Flash is closed-weights and is called through Alibaba Cloud (Qwen)'s API as qwen3.8-flash.
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Sources
Mistral Small 4 verified from docs.mistral.ai; Qwen3.8-Flash verified from alibabacloud.com. This page is as current as the older of the two: .
- https://docs.mistral.ai/inference/pricing
- https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/model-pricing
- https://docs.mistral.ai/models/mistral-small-4-0-26-03
- https://docs.mistral.ai/resources/changelogs
- https://modelstudio.console.alibabacloud.com/ap-southeast-1/model/market/detail/qwen3.8-flash
- https://www.qwencloud.com/models/qwen3.8-flash
- https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/text-generation-model
- https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/context-cache
- https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/newly-released-models
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