DeepSeek R1 vs Mistral Small 4
Compare DeepSeek R1 by DeepSeek against Mistral Small 4 by Mistral AI, context windows of 128K vs 262K, tested across 52 shared challenges. Updated May 2026.
Which is better, DeepSeek R1 or Mistral Small 4?
DeepSeek R1 and Mistral Small 4 are both competitive models. DeepSeek R1 costs $0.55/M input tokens vs $0.15/M for Mistral Small 4. Context windows: 128K vs 262K tokens. Compare their real outputs side by side below.
Key Differences Between DeepSeek R1 and Mistral Small 4
DeepSeek R1 is made by deepseek while Mistral Small 4 is from mistral. DeepSeek R1 has a 128K token context window compared to Mistral Small 4's 262K. On pricing, DeepSeek R1 costs $0.55/M input tokens vs $0.15/M for Mistral Small 4.
Per 1M tokens
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper on both — 3.7× input, 3.6× output
No community votes yet. On paper, these are closely matched - try both with your actual task to see which fits your workflow.
Mistral Small 4 is 3.6x cheaper per token — worth considering if cost matters.
Style Comparison
Mistral Small 4 uses 4.4x more emoji
