Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs Mistral Small 4
Benchmarks, API Token Pricing, Context Window & Speed Comparison
Related topics (12)
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.
Changez et Comparez les Modèles
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Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B
Raisonnement en cascadeCascaded modèle de raisonnement combining speculative draft decoding avec 3B actif MoE routage pour lightning-rapide token sortie.
$0.10 / 1M
$0.25 / 1M
256K tokens
39.5%
Mistral Small 4
Production rapidecompact 2026 production moteur combining 256K contexte, léger hybrid raisonnement, natif vision, et ultra-rapide débit.
$0.10 / 1M
$0.30 / 1M
256K tokens
44.5%
Différences Clés en un Coup d’Œil
- 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%).
| Caractéristique | 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 |
Qui gagne où ?
At-a-glance decision frameworkScores de Benchmarks Vérifiés
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.
Latence et Temps de Réponse
Time to first token (TTFT) and estimated end-to-end response time for a typical 500-token response.
Simulateur Interactif de Coût de Tokens
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 génération vitesse
- 256K fenêtre de contexte avec seamless local déploiement sur unique-card workstations
- Robust appel d'outils et dependable structuré schema adherence
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Trails larger modèles sur compétitif programmation challenges
- texte-seulement avec no image modality
Mistral Small 4 · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Colossal 256K fenêtre de contexte dans un compact 24B ouvert framework
- Blazing 120 tokens/sec vitesse avec 340ms temps-à-premier-token
- Integrated hybrid raisonnement effort et natif visuel compréhension
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Outperformed par billions-paramètre phare titans sur recherche-level physics
- visuel résolution limité à 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 |
Spécifications Techniques
Architecture, release timeline, capabilities, and modalities.
| Caractéristique | 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: Réponses Rapides (FAQ)
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.
Questions fréquentes
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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Les scores de benchmarks, tarifs par token et limites évoluent rapidement. Vérifiez toujours les spécifications actuelles sur la documentation officielle du fournisseur.
Sources: GetInfoUs Independent AI Benchmarks & Official API Specs