# Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Mistral Small 3

> Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 2.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 4 26B A4B IT's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it-vs-mistral-small-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher in 8 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads 47.6 to 16.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 82.2% for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and 6.7% for Mistral Small 3.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.09 / $0.30 for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT.
- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 33K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 43.5 | 31.2 |
| Rank | 92 | 278 |
| Context | 262K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.09 | $0.05 |
| Output $/M | $0.30 | $0.08 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 39.0 (#164)
- Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1447 | 1246 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1359 | — |
| SciCode | 40% | — |
| WeirdML | 35.2% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 927.17 | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 21.8 (#213)
- Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 6% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1439 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 141.85 | 127.07 |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 74.9% | — |
| LMCA | 29.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 47.6 (#67)
- Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 82.2% | 6.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1470 | 1240 |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 45.7 (#85)
- Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 73.2% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1447 | 1202 |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 40.6 (#46)
- Mistral Small 3: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1260 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 53.1 (#71)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1421 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1495 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1460 | 1203 |
| LMArena Russian | 1434 | 1216 |
| LMArena German | — | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1188 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1417 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 74.8 (#82)
- Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1420 | 1214 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 43.6 (#91)
- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1428 | 1246 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 58.6 (#115)
- Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)

| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1434 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1402 | 1195 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1305 | 707 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1441 | 1217 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT better than Mistral Small 3?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 2.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemma 4 26B A4B IT's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 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; Gemma 4 26B A4B IT lists at $0.09 and $0.30.

### Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.0 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT does, with 262K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Mistral Small 3 share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT has 28 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.