text model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Mistral Large 4
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Mistral Large 4 are both current text models, from Anthropic and Mistral AI. Mistral Large 4 is 65% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5.5, $0.70 vs $2. On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 1477 Elo and Mistral Large 4 1432 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept 1,000,000 tokens of context.
- Higher Arena Text
- Claude Sonnet 5.51477 Elo against 1432 Elo
- Lower price per 1M input tokens
- Mistral Large 4$0.70 against $2
- Newer release
- Mistral Large 4Oct 2026 against Sep 2026
Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03
Side by side
Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Mistral Large 4, line by line
Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Price per 1M input tokens | $2 | $0.70 (better) |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $10 | $2.10 (better) |
| Independent benchmarks | ||
| Arena Text | 1477 Elo (#19 of 51) (better) | 1432 Elo (#40 of 51) |
| Arena WebDev | 1770 Elo (#3 of 45) (better) | 1544 Elo (#32 of 45) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 88.8% (#8 of 42) (better) | 46.3% (#36 of 42) |
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% (#3 of 41) (better) | 90.2% (#28 of 41) |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% (#23 of 38) (better) | 22.4% (#36 of 38) |
| Specs | ||
| Provider | Anthropic | Mistral AI |
| Release date | September 28, 2026 | October 6, 2026 |
| Access | API only | API and open weights |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | Not reported |
| Input | text, image | text, image |
| Output | text | text |
Charts
Against every current text model
Where Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Mistral Large 4 land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.
Where each stands
On Arena Text, Claude Sonnet 5.5 ranks #19 and Mistral Large 4 #40 of 51 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#19of 51
1,477 Elo · ahead of 62%
Mistral Large 4:#40of 51
1,432 Elo · ahead of 22%
Arena WebDev
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#3of 45
1,770 Elo · ahead of 95%
Mistral Large 4:#32of 45
1,544 Elo · ahead of 30%
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#8of 42
88.8% · ahead of 83%
Mistral Large 4:#36of 42
46.3% · ahead of 15%
GPQA Diamond
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#3of 41
95.6% · ahead of 95%
Mistral Large 4:#28of 41
90.2% · ahead of 30%
SimpleQA Verified
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#23of 38
46.5% · ahead of 41%
Mistral Large 4:#36of 38
22.4% · ahead of 5%
Price and context
Price per 1M input tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#29of 52
$2 · cheaper than 24%
Mistral Large 4:#19of 52
$0.70 · cheaper than 65%
Price per 1M output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#34of 52
$10 · cheaper than 25%
Mistral Large 4:#16of 52
$2.10 · cheaper than 71%
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5.5:#26of 64
1M tokens · longer than 22%
Mistral Large 4:#26of 64
1M tokens · longer than 22%
Quality against price
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 1,477 at $4; Mistral Large 4 scores 1,432 at $1.05 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.
Quality against price: the data
| Model | Provider | Blended price per 1M tokens | Arena Text (Elo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $4 | 1,520 | |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Anthropic | $8 | 1,509 |
| Muse Wonder | Meta | $8 | 1,507 |
| Claude Fable 5 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Anthropic | $20 | 1,504 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $1.50 | 1,496 | |
| Muse Spark 1.3 | Meta | $2 | 1,495 |
| Claude Opus 5 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,492 |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot Kimi | $6 | 1,488 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | OpenAI | $8 | 1,485 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $3 | 1,483 | |
| GPT-5.5 | OpenAI | $11 | 1,482 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic | $10 | 1,482 |
| Qwen3.8-Max | Alibaba Qwen | $3 | 1,482 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,481 |
| GLM-5.3 | Z.ai | $2.15 | 1,481 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.54 | 1,480 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,477 |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | Z.ai | $0.24 | 1,477 |
| GPT-6 Astra | OpenAI | $20 | 1,476 |
| DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash | DeepSeek | $0.52 | 1,476 |
| GPT-5.4 | OpenAI | $5.63 | 1,475 |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $1.13 | 1,473 | |
| Grok 4.20 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,472 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | OpenAI | $4.50 | 1,467 |
| Grok 4.5 | xAI | $3 | 1,465 |
| DeepSeek-V4-Pro | DeepSeek | $1.98 | 1,465 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Anthropic | $4 | 1,462 |
| GPT-6 Sol | OpenAI | $4 | 1,458 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.85 | 1,456 | |
| Grok 4.6 | xAI | $3 | 1,455 |
| GPT-5.6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.45 | 1,453 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Flash | Xiaomi MiMo | $0.18 | 1,448 |
| Step 5 Preview | StepFun | $1.43 | 1,448 |
| Grok 4.3 | xAI | $1.56 | 1,442 |
| GPT-6 Luna | OpenAI | $0.20 | 1,441 |
| Grok 4.7 | xAI | $3 | 1,441 |
| Mistral Large 4 | Mistral AI | $1.05 | 1,432 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | Anthropic | $0.20 | 1,425 |
| GPT-4.1 | OpenAI | $3.50 | 1,415 |
| Solar Pro 4 | Upstage | $0.52 | 1,388 |
| GPT-4.1 mini | OpenAI | $0.70 | 1,383 |
| GPT-4.1 nano | OpenAI | $0.18 | 1,322 |
Cost
What each costs
Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.
The same work, priced
For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs 3.6 times as much as Mistral Large 4, at each provider's listed rates.
10M input and 2M output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs 3.6× as much
- Claude Sonnet 5.5
- $40
- Mistral Large 4
- $11.20
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached
Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs 4.1× as much
- Claude Sonnet 5.5
- $22.90
- Mistral Large 4
- $5.53
| Workload or rate | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Example workloads | ||
| 10M input and 2M output tokens | $40 | $11.20 (better) |
| The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached | $22.90 | $5.53 (better) |
| The same, through the batch API | $20 | Not listed |
| Other listed rates | ||
| 1M input tokens, cached | $0.10 | $0.07 (better) |
| 1M input tokens, 5-minute cache write | $2.50 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, 1-hour cache write | $4 | Not listed |
| 1M input tokens, batch | $1 | Not listed |
| 1M output tokens, batch | $5 | Not listed |
Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.
Launch price $100, regular price $150
Verdict
When to choose each
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Where it leads
- Higher Arena Text score, 1477 Elo vs 1432 Elo
- Higher Arena WebDev score, 1770 Elo vs 1544 Elo
- Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 88.8% vs 46.3%
- Higher GPQA Diamond score, 95.6% vs 90.2%
- Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 46.5% vs 22.4%
- Batch pricing, $1 input and $5 output per 1M tokens
Best for
- Production workloads that need frontier-adjacent quality at a mid-tier rate
- Latency-sensitive agent steps inside a larger pipeline
Watch out for
- Same list price as Claude Sonnet 5, so the gain is capability and cache economics rather than a cheaper rate card
- Anthropic positions Opus 5.5 rather than this as the default, so reach for Sonnet 5.5 when latency matters more than peak capability
Mistral Large 4
Where it leads
- Lower input and output prices, $0.70 and $2.10 vs $2 and $10 per 1M tokens
- Open weights you can run yourself
- Cheaper cached input, $0.07 vs $0.10 per 1M tokens
Best for
- Self-hosted or European data-residency deployments that want a frontier-scale multimodal model
- Coding and security agents where open weights and a low API price both matter
Watch out for
- The API model is still labelled a public preview, and the open weights are a further-trained build of the October 6 preview
- Businesses that sell it as a hosted model service need a separate commercial licence from Mistral
- Running the open weights moves cost to your own GPUs, which the token rates here do not represent
- Epoch AI measured 22.4% on SimpleQA Verified for the open-weight build, low for its size, so check factual recall on your own questions
From benchmark to production
Building on Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Mistral Large 4?
Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.
AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes
FAQ
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Mistral Large 4 FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Mistral Large 4?
Mistral Large 4 is 65% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Claude Sonnet 5.5, $0.70 vs $2. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $40 and Mistral Large 4 $11.20 at standard rates.
Which is cheaper with prompt caching, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Mistral Large 4?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 charges $0.10 per 1M cached input tokens, 95% below its standard input rate, and Mistral Large 4 $0.07, 90% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $22.90 and Mistral Large 4 $5.53.
Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Mistral Large 4?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on Arena Text, 1477 Elo to 1432 Elo; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on Arena WebDev, 1770 Elo to 1544 Elo; Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 88.8% to 46.3%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.
Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Mistral Large 4?
Both accept 1,000,000 tokens of context.
Can I run Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Mistral Large 4 myself?
Mistral Large 4 is released as open weights you can run yourself; Claude Sonnet 5.5 is available through its provider's API only.
Further reading
More on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Mistral Large 4
Articles on Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Mistral Large 4
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6 Luna: Cost, Speed and AccuracySeptember 29, 2026
- Claude Sonnet 5.5: Benchmarks, Price and When to Use OpusSeptember 29, 2026
Related comparisons
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Gemini 4 Argon
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Claude Opus 5 vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- DeepSeek-V4-Pro vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
- Claude Opus 5 vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Mistral Large 4
Production evaluation
Choosing between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Mistral Large 4?
Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.
- A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
- Routing between models by cost and difficulty