Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs Mistral Small 4
Benchmarks, API Token Pricing, Context Window & Speed Comparison
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Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B by NVIDIA and Mistral Small 4 by Mistral AI represent two of the frontier AI models analyzed in our comprehensive 2026 AI benchmark and LLM comparison. In this head-to-head evaluation, we examine API token pricing, context window specifications, inference speed (tokens per second), and empirical reasoning performance. From a pure economic perspective, both models offer identical input token rates. On output generation, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is more economical per million generated tokens. In data-heavy architectures requiring extensive repository or document analysis, both models provide an identical memory horizon with 256K tokens. In latency-sensitive production environments, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B leads in tokens-per-second throughput, making it ideal for real-time conversational agents and high-concurrency workflows. Below is the complete empirical head-to-head breakdown across cost, speed, context, and capability matrices.
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Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B
Cascade ReasoningCascaded reasoning model combining speculative draft decoding with 3B active MoE routing for lightning-fast token output.
$0.10 / 1M
$0.25 / 1M
256K tokens
39.5%
Mistral Small 4
Fast ProductionCompact 2026 production engine combining 256K context, lightweight hybrid reasoning, native vision, and ultra-fast throughput.
$0.10 / 1M
$0.30 / 1M
256K tokens
44.5%
Key Differences at a Glance
- Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is 1.1x cheaper for API usage (input + output tokens combined).
- Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is faster at 155 tok/s vs 120 tok/s.
- Mistral Small 4 leads on SWE-bench coding (44.5% vs 39.5%).
| Feature | Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Composite reasoning & knowledge score (0-100) | 46 | 48 |
Provider | NVIDIA | Mistral AI |
Input Price Cost per million input tokens | $0.10 / 1M | $0.10 / 1M |
Output Price Cost per million output tokens | $0.25 / 1M | $0.30 / 1M |
Blended Price Weighted 7:2:1 cache:input:output per 1M | $0.06 / 1M | $0.07 / 1M |
Context Window Maximum input + output tokens | 256K tokens~384 A4 pages of text | 256K tokens~384 A4 pages of text |
Max Output Tokens Per single request | 16K | 16K |
Throughput Speed Tokens generated per second | 155 tok/s | 120 tok/s |
SWE-bench Verified Real-world software engineering | 39.5% | 44.5% |
GPQA Diamond Graduate-level reasoning | 55.2% | 56% |
Cached Input Price Prompt caching discount per 1M tokens | $0.02 / 1M | $0.03 / 1M |
Who Wins Where?
At-a-glance decision frameworkEmpirical Head-to-Head Benchmark Scores
Official evaluation metrics verified by independent third-party research labs.
Industry benchmark evaluating real-world GitHub issue resolution and multi-file debugging.
Challenging questions created by domain experts to test complex PhD-level reasoning.
Hardened reasoning and academic knowledge benchmark with reduced lucky-guess probability.
Crowdsourced human preference evaluation based on blind, head-to-head model battles.
Autonomous multi-step tasks executed inside a real command-line terminal environment.
American Invitational Mathematics Examination — multi-step Olympiad-level reasoning.
Accuracy when reasoning over very large inputs that fill the model context window.
Tokens emitted per second during active generation streaming.
Latency & Response Time
Time to first token (TTFT) and estimated end-to-end response time for a typical 500-token response.
Real-Time Interactive Token Cost Simulator
Adjust sliders to calculate projected monthly cloud API spending with prompt caching discounts.
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Cascaded speculative architecture producing 155 tokens/sec generation speed
- 256K context window with seamless local deployment on single-card workstations
- Robust tool calling and dependable structured schema adherence
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Trails larger models on competitive programming challenges
- Text-only with no image modality
Mistral Small 4 · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Colossal 256K context window in a compact 24B open framework
- Blazing 120 tokens/sec speed with 340ms time-to-first-token
- Integrated hybrid reasoning effort and native visual understanding
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Outperformed by trillion-parameter flagship titans on research-level physics
- Visual resolution limited to standard document tiles
Token Use & Task Economics
Estimated cost and token consumption to complete one representative agentic task.
| Metric | Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
Cost per Task Estimated USD to finish one task | $0.11 | $0.12 |
Output Tokens / Task Tokens generated per task | 28K | 28K |
Reasoning Tokens / Task Thinking tokens burned per task | 11K | 12K |
Technical Specifications
Architecture, release timeline, capabilities, and modalities.
| Feature | Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B | Mistral Small 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Official API Model ID (SDK) | nemotron-cascade-2-30b-a3b | mistral-small-4-latest |
| API Protocol | OpenAI-Compatible REST / vLLM / SGLang / HuggingFace TGI | OpenAI-Compatible REST / vLLM / SGLang / HuggingFace TGI |
| Release Date | 2026-03 | 2026-03 |
| Knowledge Cutoff | January 2026 | January 2026 |
| Architecture | Cascaded Speculative MoE (30B Total / 3B Active) | Next-Gen Compact Multimodal Transformer |
| Parameters | 30B (3B active MoE) | 24B |
| Enterprise Rate Limits (RPM / TPM) | Unlimited (Hardware-bound on self-hosted GPU) / 10,000 RPM Cloud · Unlimited local throughput / 10M+ TPM Managed Cloud | Unlimited (Hardware-bound on self-hosted GPU) / 10,000 RPM Cloud · Unlimited local throughput / 10M+ TPM Managed Cloud |
| Long-Context Tier (>128K/200K) | Flat rate ($0.1/1M in) across full 256K window | Flat rate ($0.1/1M in) across full 256K window |
| Prompt Cache Policy & TTL | Cached input at $0.02/1M tokens | Cached input at $0.03/1M tokens |
| Computer Use / GUI Agent | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) |
| MCP & Parallel Tool Calling | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema |
| Web Search Grounding & Sandbox | Supported via external Tavily/Exa Search & E2B/Docker Sandbox tools | Supported via external Tavily/Exa Search & E2B/Docker Sandbox tools |
| Official Fine-Tuning Support | Full Weights SFT, LoRA, QLoRA, DPO & GRPO RL (Unsloth / Axolotl / Llama-Factory) | Full Weights SFT, LoRA, QLoRA, DPO & GRPO RL (Unsloth / Axolotl / Llama-Factory) |
| Multimodal Token Billing | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) · Vision (~258–765 tokens per image tile) |
| Quantization & Min GPU VRAM | BF16 / FP16, FP8 Dynamic, INT4 AWQ / GPTQ, GGUF (Q4_K_M / Q8_0) · 19 GB VRAM (4-bit Quantized) · 65 GB VRAM (Native BF16) | BF16 / FP16, FP8 Dynamic, INT4 AWQ / GPTQ, GGUF (Q4_K_M / Q8_0) · 15 GB VRAM (4-bit Quantized) · 52 GB VRAM (Native BF16) |
| Safety & Frontier Classification | Open-Weights System Card + Customizable Guardrail Layer (Llama Guard / ShieldGemma) | Open-Weights System Card + Customizable Guardrail Layer (Llama Guard / ShieldGemma) |
| Enterprise Compliance (ZDR/HIPAA/SOC2) | 100% Air-Gapped On-Premises / Private VPC · Full HIPAA, GDPR & SOC2 Control | 100% Air-Gapped On-Premises / Private VPC · Full HIPAA, GDPR & SOC2 Control |
| Input Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Output Modalities | text | text |
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs Mistral Small 4: Quick Answers
Which is more intelligent, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or Mistral Small 4?
Mistral Small 4 is more intelligent. It scores 48 compared with 46 on the composite Intelligence Index.
Which model is faster?
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is faster, generating 155 tokens per second compared with 120 tokens per second.
Which model is cheaper to run?
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is cheaper at $0.06 per 1M tokens blended, compared with $0.07 (7:2:1 cache:input:output ratio).
Which model has lower latency?
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B has lower latency, with a time to first token of 0.27s compared with 0.34s.
Verdict
Verdict & Model Selection Recommendation: Choose Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B if your priority is Real-time conversational agents, instant coding autocomplete, and low-latency API services. Its performance in demanding tasks justifies its operational token cost. Choose Mistral Small 4 if your workflow prioritizes High-volume agent orchestration, low-cost document parsing, and edge deployments. For large-scale batch processing or customer-facing conversational interfaces, its balance of speed and economics delivers superior ROI.
Frequently asked questions
How does Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B compare to Mistral Small 4 in API token pricing and cost per token?+
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.25 per 1M output tokens, whereas Mistral Small 4 costs $0.10 input and $0.30 output. Overall, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is the more cost-effective model for high-volume API pipelines. Both models support prompt caching discounts of up to 90% for repeated prompt prefixes.
Which model has a larger context window: Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or Mistral Small 4?+
Both Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and Mistral Small 4 offer an identical context window of 256K tokens (~192k words). Both architectures provide equal capacity for large document ingestion, multi-file codebases, and extended multi-turn conversation histories.
Which AI model is better for software engineering and coding: Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or Mistral Small 4?+
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B scores 39.5% on SWE-bench Verified while Mistral Small 4 scores 44.5%. For autonomous software engineering and multi-file debugging, Mistral Small 4 holds the verified benchmark lead.
What is the difference in reasoning capability and extended thinking between Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and Mistral Small 4?+
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B features native chain-of-thought extended thinking mode with configurable reasoning effort. In contrast, Mistral Small 4 provides chain-of-thought reasoning depth for complex math and science.
How does inference speed (tokens per second) compare between Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and Mistral Small 4?+
Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B generates approximately 155 tokens per second, while Mistral Small 4 delivers 120 tokens per second. In latency-sensitive production environments, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B provides faster time-to-first-token (TTFT) and higher streaming response velocity.
Can you implement a tiered LLM routing setup combining Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and Mistral Small 4 to optimize costs?+
Yes! High-efficiency architectures route high-frequency routine classification and conversational tasks to Mistral Small 4 to save operational costs, and dynamically escalate complex architectural queries or reasoning tasks to Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B. This tiered routing pattern cuts overall API bills by up to 70%.
Understand key metrics like context window, token pricing, reasoning mode, and SWE-bench scores in our comprehensive AI glossary.
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Benchmark scores, token prices, and rate limits evolve rapidly as AI labs release model updates. Always verify current specifications and pricing on the official provider documentation.
Sources: GetInfoUs Independent AI Benchmarks & Official API Specs