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Head-to-head comparison

MAI DS R1 vs Mistral Small 4

MAI DS R1 (Microsoft) and Mistral Small 4 (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 22 September 2026

As of 22 September 2026, Mistral Small 4 holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#97 vs #99).

Which should you choose?

Choose MAI DS R1 if…

  • ModelCap publishes no field on which MAI DS R1 leads Mistral Small 4 for this pair.

Choose Mistral Small 4 if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #97 against #99 (54.1 vs 53.3 points).
  • you want provider choice — 1 listed API providers against 0.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Mistral Small 4 was listed 16 March 2026, MAI DS R1 16 April 2025.

MAI DS R1 vs Mistral Small 4: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of MAI DS R1 and Mistral Small 4
FieldMAI DS R1MicrosoftMistral Small 4Mistral AI
ModelCap Index position#99#97
Index score53.354.1
EvidenceInheritedMeasured
Input price / 1M tokensUnlisted$0.15
Output price / 1M tokensUnlisted$0.60
Context window— tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens—210K
API providers listed01
Weight accessOpen weightsOpen weights
Input modalitiesTextText, Image
First listed16 April 202516 March 2026
PublisherMicrosoftMistral AI

Evidence: finetune of deepseek/deepseek-r1 · finetune (100%) · 1 public benchmark observation across 1 board. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: MAI DS R1 vs Mistral Small 4

Public benchmark boards where MAI DS R1 or Mistral Small 4 has a published result
BoardMAI DS R1Mistral Small 4Leads
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis—11.3intelligence-index:v4.3:reasoning-unspecifiedOnly one result

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.

MAI DS R1 vs Mistral Small 4: common questions

Is MAI DS R1 better than Mistral Small 4?

Mistral Small 4 ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 22 September 2026: #97 against #99. 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. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is MAI DS R1 cheaper than Mistral Small 4?

At least one of the two has no listed API price on ModelCap right now, so no price comparison is made.

Which has the bigger context window, MAI DS R1 or Mistral Small 4?

Both publish a —-token context window.

Which is better for coding, MAI DS R1 or Mistral Small 4?

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 MAI DS R1 and Mistral Small 4 open-weight models?

MAI DS R1: Open weights. Mistral Small 4: 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 MAI DS R1 and Mistral Small 4?

ModelCap currently lists 0 API providers for MAI DS R1 and 1 for Mistral Small 4, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this MAI DS R1 vs Mistral Small 4 comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 22 September 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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