Noometry

Alternatives

Cheaper Mistral Alternatives in October 2026

The strongest lower-cost alternative to Mistral as of October 2026 is Qwen3.7 Flash from Alibaba (Qwen): 3.1 points behind Mistral Large 4, 18.8× cheaper per token. Compared against Mistral Large 4, Mistral's current top model.

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  1. Qwen3.7 Flash Alibaba (Qwen)

    3.1 points behind Mistral Large 4, 18.8× cheaper per token.

    Score 39.9, $0.055 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

  2. gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

    6.8 points behind Mistral Large 4, 14.7× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 36.3, $0.0703 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

  3. Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B NVIDIA

    2.5 points behind Mistral Large 4, 11.8× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 40.6, $0.0875 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

  4. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT Google

    about as strong as Mistral Large 4, 9.7× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 43.5, $0.11 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

  5. Granite 4.2 8B IBM

    2.5 points behind Mistral Large 4, 9.6× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 40.5, $0.11 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

  6. Hy3 Tencent

    about as strong as Mistral Large 4, 7.2× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 44.2, $0.14 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

  7. GLM-4.7-Flash Z.ai (Zhipu)

    4.3 points behind Mistral Large 4, 7.1× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 38.8, $0.15 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

  8. Step 3.5 Flash StepFun

    about as strong as Mistral Large 4, 6.9× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 42.3, $0.15 per M tokens blended.Compare with Mistral Large 4

More: All alternatives, Open-source, For coding

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to Mistral?

The strongest lower-cost alternative to Mistral as of October 2026 is Qwen3.7 Flash from Alibaba (Qwen): 3.1 points behind Mistral Large 4, 18.8× cheaper per token. Compared against Mistral Large 4, Mistral's current top model.

How were these alternatives chosen?

Each is the highest-ranked model from a different provider that costs less per token and scores within 8 points, compared on the Noometry Index against Mistral Large 4.