Compare / Gemma 4 26B-A4B vs Mistral Small 3.2
Gemma 4 26B-A4B vs Mistral Small 3.2
Updated November 2026
Verdict
Gemma 4 26B-A4B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 67.5 vs 38.6. On the 2 benchmarks both labs report, Gemma 4 26B-A4B wins 2 and Mistral Small 3.2 wins 0. Both need about 16.9 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization. Gemma 4 26B-A4B is cheaper through an API: $0.068 per million tokens against $0.11.
Pick Gemma 4 26B-A4B if…
- you want the strongest model overall
- API cost matters most
- you work with long documents
- you want the more widely used model (more quantized builds and community support)
Pick Mistral Small 3.2 if…
No clear advantage in the data we have.
Specifications
| Gemma 4 26B-A4B | Mistral Small 3.2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Small LM Index | 67.5 (likely 66–69) | 38.6 (likely 29–49) |
| Lab | Google · United States | Mistral AI · Europe |
| Released | 2026-04-02 | 2025-06-20 |
| Parameters | 25.2B (3.8B active, MoE) | 24B (dense) |
| Memory at 4-bit | ~16.8 GB | ~16.9 GB |
| Context window | 256K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Input | text, image | text, image |
| Reasoning | Hybrid (thinking on/off) | No thinking |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| API price / 1M tokens | $0.068 ($0.040 in, $0.15 out) | $0.11 ($0.075 in, $0.20 out) |
| Hugging Face downloads (30 days) | 5.9M | 118.9K |
Benchmarks
Higher is better. Bold marks the winner where both labs report a score. ≈ marks the index model's estimate for a score that wasn't reported, ✓ an independent measurement and * a score measured by another lab.
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B-A4B | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro Knowledge | 82.6 | 69.1 |
| GPQA Diamond Knowledge | 82.3 | 46.1 |
| Humanity's Last Exam Reasoning | 8.7 | ≈ 4 |
| AIME Math | 88.3 | ≈ 50 |
| LiveCodeBench Coding | 77.1 | ≈ 43 |
| SWE-bench Verified Coding | 17.4* | ≈ 19 |
| Terminal-Bench Agentic | 34.2* | — |
| τ²-Bench Agentic | 68.2 | — |
| MMMU-Pro Vision | 73.8 | — |
Scores are mostly reported by each lab with its own settings, so small gaps are noise. See the methodology. Open in the interactive comparison to add more models.
Questions
Which is better, Gemma 4 26B-A4B or Mistral Small 3.2?
Gemma 4 26B-A4B scores higher on the Small LM Index: 67.5 vs 38.6. On the 2 benchmarks both labs report, Gemma 4 26B-A4B wins 2 and Mistral Small 3.2 wins 0.
Which is cheaper to run?
Gemma 4 26B-A4B is cheaper through an API: $0.068 per million tokens against $0.11. Both need about 16.9 GB of memory at 4-bit quantization.
Which has the longer context window?
Gemma 4 26B-A4B has the longer context window: 256K tokens against 128K.
Can I use Gemma 4 26B-A4B and Mistral Small 3.2 commercially?
Both are released under the Apache-2.0 license. Apache 2.0 and MIT allow commercial use; other licenses can add conditions, so read the license before shipping a product.