Mixtral 8x22BvsMistral Small
Mistral AI vs Mistral AI — Side-by-side model comparison
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Metric | Mixtral 8x22B | Mistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | ||
| Arena Rank | #16 | #19 |
| Context Window | 64K | 32K |
| Input Pricing | $0.90/1M tokens | $0.20/1M tokens |
| Output Pricing | $2.70/1M tokens | $0.60/1M tokens |
| Parameters | 176B (39B active) | 22B |
| Open Source | Yes | Yes |
| Best For | Efficient reasoning, multilingual, coding | Fast inference, cost-effective tasks, chat |
| Release Date | Apr 17, 2024 | Sep 18, 2024 |
Mixtral 8x22B
Mixtral 8x22B, developed by Mistral AI, is a large Mixture-of-Experts model with 176 billion total parameters (39 billion active per token) and a 64K token context window. The model scales the MoE architecture to deliver stronger reasoning, coding, and multilingual performance while maintaining the efficiency advantages of sparse expert routing. It supports function calling and structured outputs for production agentic workflows. Free and open-source, Mixtral 8x22B can be deployed on enterprise GPU infrastructure for organizations requiring powerful, self-hosted AI. Priced at $0.90 per million input tokens through API providers. The model demonstrates competitive performance with proprietary models at significantly lower operational cost due to its efficient architecture. Mixtral 8x22B ranks #16 on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, confirming strong capability for an open-weight MoE model.
View Mistral AI profile →Mistral Small
Mistral Small, developed by Mistral AI, is a compact 22 billion parameter model with a 32K token context window optimized for fast inference and low deployment costs. The model handles coding, summarization, classification, and conversational tasks while maintaining the quality standards established by the Mistral model family. Its small footprint makes it suitable for edge deployment, cost-sensitive production applications, and use cases requiring low-latency responses. Priced at $0.20 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens, it offers affordable access to Mistral's technology. As an open-source model, it can also be self-hosted without API costs. Mistral Small ranks #19 on the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, demonstrating competitive performance for its compact size and establishing it as a strong option for budget-conscious deployments.
View Mistral AI profile →Key Differences: Mixtral 8x22B vs Mistral Small
Mixtral 8x22B ranks higher in arena benchmarks (#16) indicating stronger overall performance.
Mistral Small is 4.5x cheaper on average, making it the better choice for high-volume applications.
Mixtral 8x22B supports a larger context window (64K), allowing it to process longer documents in a single request.
Mixtral 8x22B has 176B (39B active) parameters vs Mistral Small's 22B, which affects inference speed and capability.
When to use Mixtral 8x22B
- +You need the highest quality output based on arena rankings
- +Quality matters more than cost
- +You need to process long documents (64K context)
- +Your use case involves efficient reasoning, multilingual, coding
When to use Mistral Small
- +Budget is a concern and you need cost efficiency
- +Your use case involves fast inference, cost-effective tasks, chat
Cost Analysis
At current pricing, Mistral Small is 4.5x more affordable than Mixtral 8x22B. For a typical enterprise workload processing 100M tokens per month:
Mixtral 8x22B monthly cost
$180
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
Mistral Small monthly cost
$40
100M tokens/mo (50/50 in/out)
The Verdict
Mixtral 8x22B wins our head-to-head comparison with 3 out of 5 category wins. It's the stronger choice for efficient reasoning, multilingual, coding, though Mistral Small holds an edge in fast inference, cost-effective tasks, chat. If cost is your primary concern, Mistral Small offers better value.
Last compared: April 2026 · Data sourced from public benchmarks and official pricing pages