Mistral Large vs Phi-4: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 20, 2026By LLMversusUpdated June 14, 2026View methodology

⚡ Quick Answer

Phi-4 is significantly cheaper at $0.07/$0.14 per million tokens vs $2.00/$6.00. Mistral Large is stronger for coding with a coding ELO of 1240 vs 1130. Phi-4 is faster at 160 tokens/sec vs 75 tokens/sec. Mistral Large ranks higher overall with an Arena ELO of 1245 vs 1150. Mistral Large offers a larger 128K context window vs 16K.

Updated: April 20, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureMistral LargePhi-4
ProviderMistralMicrosoft
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.500$0.065
Output Price / 1M tokens$1.50$0.140
Context Window
128K
16.384K
Max Output Tokens
8,192
4,096
Arena ELO
1,245
1,150
Coding ELO
1,240
1,130
TTFT (ms)
280
100
Tokens/sec
75
160
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesNo
VisionNoNo
When to Use Mistral Large

Choose Mistral Large when you need: strong multilingual support, good coding capabilities, european ai alternative, open-weight model available. It excels at coding, multilingual, general-purpose tasks. Its 128K context window is larger, making it better for long-document processing.

Strengths:

  • Strong multilingual support
  • Good coding capabilities
  • European AI alternative
  • Open-weight model available

Best for:

codingmultilingualgeneral-purpose
When to Use Phi-4

Choose Phi-4 when you need: ultra-low cost for a capable model, strong math for its size (14b params), very fast inference, can run on consumer hardware. It excels at cost-sensitive, edge-deployment, math, lightweight-tasks tasks. It is also the more cost-effective option between the two.

Strengths:

  • Ultra-low cost for a capable model
  • Strong math for its size (14B params)
  • Very fast inference
  • Can run on consumer hardware

Best for:

cost-sensitiveedge-deploymentmathlightweight-tasks

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Comparisons