Gemini 3.8 Flash or Mistral Large 4: which to choose?

Side-by-side comparison

Criterion	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Mistral Large 4
Developer	Google DeepMind	Mistral AI
Released	September 2, 2026	October 6, 2026
Capability index	83.7 / 100	79.7 / 100
Input price	$0.75	$1.36
Output price	$3.75	$4.18
Cost of a typical task	$0.023	$0.036
Context window	1,048,576 tokens	1,048,576 tokens
Maximum output	65,536 tokens	262,144 tokens
Reasoning mode	Yes	Yes
Tool calling	Yes	Yes
Accepted inputs	text, image, video, audio, PDF	text, image, PDF
Open weights	No	No
Knowledge cutoff	Not disclosed	Not disclosed

The match-up at a glance

Gemini 3.8 Flash and Mistral Large 4 are two mid-range models, balancing quality and cost, one from Google DeepMind, the other from Mistral AI. Gemini 3.8 Flash was released on September 2, 2026, Mistral Large 4 on October 6, 2026.

All figures below come from public sources checked on October 22, 2026: models.dev and OpenRouter for prices and capabilities, Epoch AI for scores.

What the benchmarks say

On our capability index, Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 83.7 out of 100 and Mistral Large 4 79.7. Gemini 3.8 Flash leads by 4 points.

On the 4 benchmarks reported for both, Gemini 3.8 Flash wins 4 times and Mistral Large 4 0:

GPQA Diamond (PhD-level science questions): Gemini 3.8 Flash 95.4%, Mistral Large 4 88.1%
OTIS Mock AIME (competition mathematics problems): Gemini 3.8 Flash 98.9%, Mistral Large 4 98.3%
FrontierMath (very hard research-level mathematics): Gemini 3.8 Flash 68.4%, Mistral Large 4 58.6%
FrontierCode (advanced programming tasks): Gemini 3.8 Flash 41.2%, Mistral Large 4 39.4%

Which one costs less?

Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 4 costs $1.36 and $4.18.

For a typical agent task (read 20,000 tokens, write 2,000), expect $0.023 with Gemini 3.8 Flash versus $0.036 with Mistral Large 4. Gemini 3.8 Flash is 1.6 times cheaper, a gap that adds up quickly over 1,000 tasks: $13.06 difference.

Run the numbers with your own volumes in the agent cost calculator.

Under the hood

Both models have the same context window: 1,048,576 tokens, roughly 1,573 pages.

Reasoning mode: Gemini 3.8 Flash yes, Mistral Large 4 yes. Tool calling: Gemini 3.8 Flash yes, Mistral Large 4 yes. Image input: Gemini 3.8 Flash yes, Mistral Large 4 yes.

Neither publishes its weights: both are used through an API.

In short

Our reading of the data:

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash for a higher capability index and a lower cost.

This verdict relies on public figures; it does not replace a trial on your own tasks.

Frequently asked questions

Gemini 3.8 Flash or Mistral Large 4: which is better?

On our index (Epoch AI data), Gemini 3.8 Flash scores 83.7 and Mistral Large 4 79.7 out of 100. The best choice also depends on price and on your use case.

Which one is cheaper?

Gemini 3.8 Flash. To read 20,000 tokens and write 2,000, expect $0.023 with Gemini 3.8 Flash and $0.036 with Mistral Large 4 (prices as of October 22, 2026).

Which one has the larger context window?

Neither: both accept 1,048,576 tokens.

Can I run Gemini 3.8 Flash or Mistral Large 4 on my own servers?

No: both are closed models, available through an API.

Gemini 3.8 Flash versus Mistral Large 4