Model comparison
Command R+ vs Mistral Small 3
Command R+ is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.4 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 76× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Command R+'s lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 19 shared benchmarks.
Cohere
Mistral AISummary
- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Command R+ scores higher in 4 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 4 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Command R+ leads 28.9 to 16.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Instruct: 33.8% for Command R+ and 45.3% for Mistral Small 3.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $2.50 / $10 for Command R+.
- Command R+ accepts more context: 128K tokens versus 33K.
Side by side
| Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Cohere | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 32.4 | 31.2 |
| Released | 2024-08-30 | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 33K |
| Max output | 4K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2.50 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $10 | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 34 | 24 |
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Category by category
Coding Mistral Small 3 leads
Command R+: 29.1 (#309), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 33.8% | 45.3% |
| LMArena Coding | 1187 | 1246 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 41.9% | 50.4% |
| LiveBench Coding | 19.1% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 56.7% | — |
| MBPP+ | 63.5% | — |
Reasoning Mistral Small 3 leads
Command R+: 9.2 (#344), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1186 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.34 | 127.07 |
| SimpleBench | 17.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 24.8% | — |
| DTBench | 54.9% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 38.1% | — |
| LMCA | 5% | — |
| LiveBench | 31.8% | — |
Math Command R+ leads
Command R+: 28.9 (#242), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1188 | 1240 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 6.7% |
| LiveBench Math | 21.3% | — |
Knowledge Command R+ leads
Command R+: 36.4 (#169), Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1174 | 1202 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 47.3% |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.9% | — |
| MMLU | 69.4% | — |
Multilingual Command R+ leads
Command R+: 38.6 (#227), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1216 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1226 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1209 | 1203 |
| LMArena German | 1216 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1166 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1138 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1227 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1189 | — |
Instruction Following Mistral Small 3 leads
Command R+: 60.0 (#254), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1197 | 1214 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 57.6% | — |
Long Context Too close to call
Command R+: 37.3 (#219), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1230 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference Command R+ leads
Command R+: 43.5 (#228), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
| Benchmark | Command R+ | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1229 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1235 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1213 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |
| LiveBench Language | 29.7% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Command R+ better than Mistral Small 3?
Command R+ is the stronger model overall, scoring 32.4 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 76× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Command R+'s lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Command R+ or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Command R+ lists at $2.50 and $10.
Is Command R+ or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
Mistral Small 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.5 versus 29.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Command R+ does, with 128K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Command R+ and Mistral Small 3 share?
19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Command R+ has 34 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.