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Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B is the pick when cost matters at scale, Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) when you need file / PDF input.

Key numbers

SpecGoogle: Gemma 4 26B A4BMistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)
ProviderGoogleMistral AI
Input price (per 1M tokens)$0.07$0.15
Output price (per 1M tokens)$0.23$0.45
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$0.11$0.22
Cheaper than … of all models we track80%68%
Context window262K tokens (~393 pages)256K tokens (~384 pages)
Larger context than … of all models48%45%
Max output per response236K tokens (~176,900 words)205K tokens (~153,600 words)
Input typesimage, text, videotext, file
Output typestexttext
Free variantYesNo
Listed since2026-04-032025-08-01
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)Google: Gemma 4 26B A4BMistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)Difference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$9.56$20.25Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B saves $10.69
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$10.35$22.50Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B saves $12.15
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$10.80$23.40Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B saves $12.60
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$6.75$14.70Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B saves $7.95
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$3.60$7.95Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B saves $4.35

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityGoogle: Gemma 4 26B A4BMistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)What it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes✓ Yescall your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)✓ Yes✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode✓ Yes—spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes—read screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input—✓ Yesaccept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search——answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)✓ Yes✓ Yesrepeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities✓ Yes—read token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

DateModelInput / 1MOutput / 1M
2026-10-17Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-10-13Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.08$0.26
2026-10-10Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-10-06Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.08$0.26
2026-10-03Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-09-29Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.08$0.26
2026-09-26Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-09-13Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.09$0.30

Which should you choose?

Choose Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 52% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($9.56 vs $20.25 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you need reasoning / thinking mode — to spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) does not advertise it
  • you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) does not advertise it
  • you need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) does not advertise it
  • you want to prototype at zero cost — a free variant is listed
  • you want the newer model — released 2026-04-03, 8 months after the other

Choose Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) if…

  • you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B does not advertise it

Frequently asked questions

Is Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B better than Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)?

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B is the pick when cost matters at scale, Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) when you need file / PDF input. In short: Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B when cost matters at scale, you need reasoning / thinking mode, you need image input, you need log-probabilities, you want to prototype at zero cost, you want the newer model; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) when you need file / PDF input.

Which is cheaper, Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.11 vs $0.22 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 52% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $9.56 against $20.25.

How much do Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) cost per million tokens?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.07 per 1M input tokens and $0.23 per 1M output tokens; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) costs $0.15 input and $0.45 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: 262K tokens, about 393 pages, against 256K (about 384 pages) for Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch).

Do Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: yes, Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch): yes. JSON-schema structured output — Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: yes, Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch): yes.

Can Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) read images?

Only Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B accepts image input; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) is text-only for input.

Is Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) free to use?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B has a free variant (google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it:free). Free variants usually carry tighter rate limits.

What is the maximum output length of Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch)?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B can write up to 236K tokens (about 176,900 words) per response; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) up to 205K (about 153,600 words).

When were Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) released?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B was listed on 2026-04-03; Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) on 2025-08-01.

Has the price of Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) changed?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: input price cut 12% ($0.08 → $0.07/1M), output price cut 12% ($0.26 → $0.23/1M) on 2026-10-17 (11 price changes since 2026-08-06). Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch): input price cut 50% ($0.30 → $0.15/1M), output price cut 50% ($0.90 → $0.45/1M) on 2026-09-10.

About the two models

Compare Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B with other models

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Compare Mistral: Codestral 2508 (batch) with other models

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