Ling 3.0 flash vs Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603)
Ling 3.0 flash scores higher on the intelligence index, 25 against 11. Both take the same machine to start: the cheapest here that runs either is the Framework Desktop, 128GB, at $3,449. On it, Ling 3.0 flash is about 1.3× quicker: 41 tok/s against 32, both estimated from memory bandwidth. At 500k tokens a day the Framework Desktop, 128GB pays for itself in 114 years running Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603), against 1,352 years running Ling 3.0 flash.
| Ling 3.0 flash | Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence index | 25 | 11 |
| Class | Haiku-class | Below every hosted tier |
| Weights | 78 GB | 74 GB |
| Needs at 32k | 78 GB | 75 GB |
| Quantisation | Q4_K_M | Q4_K_M |
| Parameters | 124B (5.1B active) | 119.4B (6B active) |
| Max context | 256k | 1M |
| API price per 1M | $0.021 in / $0.063 out | $0.15 in / $0.6 out |
| Licence | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
| Machines here that run it | 12 of 37 | 12 of 37 |
| Cheapest machine that runs it | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
Run Ling 3.0 flash on the Framework Desktop, 128GB · or Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603)
Jump to: Side by side on the Framework Desktop, 128GB · How much use it takes to pay for the machine · Memory is not what separates them · The assumptions behind both columns
Side by side on the Framework Desktop, 128GB
The cheapest machine that runs either model is the same one, so this is the pair doing the same work on the same hardware: Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB, at $3,449.
| Ling 3.0 flash | Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed at 32k | 41 tok/s estimated | 32 tok/s estimated |
| Pay-back on this machine | Pays back in 1,352 years | Pays back in 114 years |
| API cost per month | $0.36 | $2.71 |
Run Ling 3.0 flash on the Framework Desktop, 128GB · or Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603)
How much use it takes to pay for the machine
Everything above is at 500k tokens a day. Pay-back moves with how much you actually run, so here are both models at the five levels of use the calculator names, on the Framework Desktop, 128GB. Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) pays for it sooner at every level of use, so which of them to run does not turn on how hard you work it.
| A day's use | Ling 3.0 flash | Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) |
|---|---|---|
| 50ka few chats a day | 13,521 years | 1,140 years |
| 200klight assistant use | 3,380 years | 285 years |
| 1Ma moderate coding-assistant day | 676 years | 57 years |
| 4Mheavy coding with an agent | 169 years | 14 years |
| 20Magents running most of the day | 34 years | 2.8 years |
Run Ling 3.0 flash at 20M tokens a day · or Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603)
Memory is not what separates them
Ling 3.0 flash needs 78 GB of memory at 32k of context and Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) needs 75 GB. Every machine priced here that runs one runs the other, at 32k of context. So the choice between them is what each is good at, how fast it runs and what the same work costs on an API, not what you have to buy to hold it.
Ling 3.0 flash is also head to head with Tencent Hy3 above it on the leaderboard and MiniMax M2.7 below it. One more model needs much the same memory: Qwen3.5 122B-A10B. Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) is also head to head with GLM-4.5-Air above it on the leaderboard and Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 below it.
The assumptions behind both columns
Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Where nobody rents an open model by the token, its API prices are the nearest hosted model's, named beside them. Machines are the 37 here with a published price that are still sold. Change any of it in the calculator.
More head to head: every machine that runs Ling 3.0 flash · every machine that runs Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) · every other match-up · both against the frontier · the quickest pay-back at each level of use