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Head-to-head comparison

Llama Guard 4 12B vs Mistral Nemo

Llama Guard 4 12B (Meta) and Mistral Nemo (Mistral AI) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 17 August 2026

As of 17 August 2026, Mistral Nemo holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#227 vs #229); Mistral Nemo is 6× cheaper per output token ($0.03/1M vs $0.18/1M); Llama Guard 4 12B offers the longer context window (1M vs 131K tokens); and Mistral Nemo ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Llama Guard 4 12B if…

  • you need the longer context window — 1M tokens against 131K.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Llama Guard 4 12B was listed 30 April 2025, Mistral Nemo 19 July 2024.

Choose Mistral Nemo if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #227 against #229 (0.0 vs 0.0 points).
  • API cost matters — $0.03/1M output tokens against $0.18/1M, about 6× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.019/1M against $0.18/1M.
  • you want to self-host: Mistral Nemo ships open weights while Llama Guard 4 12B is gated access.
  • you want provider choice — 4 listed API providers against 2.

Llama Guard 4 12B vs Mistral Nemo: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Llama Guard 4 12B and Mistral Nemo
FieldLlama Guard 4 12BMetaMistral NemoMistral AI
ModelCap Index position#229#227
Index score0.00.0
EvidenceEstimatedEstimated
Input price / 1M tokens$0.18$0.019
Output price / 1M tokens$0.18$0.03
Context window1M tokens131K tokens
Max output tokens16K16K
API providers listed24
Weight accessGated accessOpen weights
Input modalitiesImage, TextText
First listed30 April 202519 July 2024
PublisherMetaMistral AI

Evidence: publisher corpus prior · leave-one-anchor-out calibrated · publisher corpus prior · leave-one-anchor-out calibrated. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Llama Guard 4 12B vs Mistral Nemo

Neither model has a published result on a public benchmark board ModelCap tracks yet.

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Llama Guard 4 12B vs Mistral Nemo: common questions

Is Llama Guard 4 12B better than Mistral Nemo?

Mistral Nemo ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 17 August 2026: #227 against #229. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it.

Is Llama Guard 4 12B cheaper than Mistral Nemo?

Mistral Nemo is cheaper on output tokens: $0.03/1M against $0.18/1M. Input tokens are $0.18/1M for Llama Guard 4 12B and $0.019/1M for Mistral Nemo. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens.

Which has the bigger context window, Llama Guard 4 12B or Mistral Nemo?

Llama Guard 4 12B has the larger context window: 1M tokens against 131K.

Which is better for coding, Llama Guard 4 12B or Mistral Nemo?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Llama Guard 4 12B and Mistral Nemo open-weight models?

Llama Guard 4 12B: Gated access. Mistral Nemo: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Llama Guard 4 12B and Mistral Nemo?

ModelCap currently lists 2 API providers for Llama Guard 4 12B and 4 for Mistral Nemo, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Llama Guard 4 12B vs Mistral Nemo comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 17 August 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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