LLM·Dex
Newsletter

Mistral Large 2 vs Phi-4

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Mistral Large 2 specs · Phi-4 specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceMistral Large 2

    Mistral Large 2 publishes pricing ($6.00 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-4 does not.

  • Context windowMistral Large 2

    Mistral Large 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    Across 2 shared benchmarks the two models split wins evenly. Look at task-specific scores rather than the average.

  • ModalitiesTie

    Both handle text.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Mistral Large 2 edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Phi-4's 0. Mistral Large 2 publishes pricing ($6.00 / 1M output tokens) while Phi-4 does not. Mistral Large 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 16K, 8.0× the room for long documents and codebases.

Across 2 shared benchmarks the two models split wins evenly. Look at task-specific scores rather than the average. Both target the same set of modalities (text), so the deciding factors are price, context, and raw quality. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Phi-4 is the newer of the two, released 5 months after Mistral Large 2, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Mistral Large 2 is usually picked for coding llm and multilingual workloads, while Phi-4 sees more deployments in on device and edge deployment. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecMistral Large 2Phi-4
ProviderMistralMicrosoft
ReleasedJul 2024Dec 2024
Modalitiestexttext
Context window128K tokens16K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$2.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$6.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2024-04,
Open weightsYes (Mistral Research License)Yes (MIT)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$15.00 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$150 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$336 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Mistral Large 2$0.500
  • Phi-4Pricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Mistral Large 2Phi-4
  • MMLU84.084.8
  • HumanEval92.082.6
Pick Mistral Large 2 if

Mistral Large 2 fits when…

  • Strong code and math
  • EU data residency
  • Multilingual
  • Long-context tasks, handles 128K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
Pick Phi-4 if

Phi-4 fits when…

  • Exceptional quality at 14B parameters
  • MIT license, clean commercial use
  • Strong on math
Don't want either?

Consider Mistral Medium

Mistral's mid-tier balanced model, production-ready at competitive pricing.

See Mistral Medium specsMistral Large 2 vs Mistral MediumPhi-4 vs Mistral Medium

Frequently asked

  • Is Mistral Large 2 or Phi-4 cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Mistral Large 2 accepts 128K tokens vs 16K for Phi-4.
  • Is Mistral Large 2 or Phi-4 better for coding?
    Both Mistral Large 2 and Phi-4 are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Both ship with open weights. Mistral Large 2 is licensed under Mistral Research License; Phi-4 under MIT.
  • When were Mistral Large 2 and Phi-4 released?
    Mistral Large 2 was released by Mistral on 2024-07-24. Phi-4 was released by Microsoft on 2024-12-12.
Friday digest

The week's AI launches, in your inbox.

One short email every Friday, new models, leaks, and quietly-shipped APIs you missed.