Mistral Small 4 — local AI model by Mistral AI
Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated
Mistral AI's March 16, 2026 release unifying its former Magistral/Pixtral/Devstral lines into a single 119B-total / ~6.5B-active MoE model (128 experts, 4 active per token) with text + image input, reasoning, and agentic coding. Apache 2.0 licensed, 256K context. At Q4 it fits a single 24GB GPU (RTX 4090).
Variants
The smallest Mistral Small 4 variant needs about 73 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M — quantized weights plus framework overhead, before any KV cache.
| Model | VRAM at Q4 | VRAM | Context | Run it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral Small 4 119B-A6.5B → 119B (~6.5B active) | ~72.6 GB | 256,000 | ollama run mistral-small |
Memory is quantized weights plus overhead at Q4_K_M, from the same engine as the GPU & VRAM checker.
How to run Mistral Small 4 locally
Install Ollama, then pull the tag.
ollama run mistral-smallPick a size above for its own VRAM figure, speed estimate and install command.
Licence
Commercial use permitted. No usage restrictions beyond attribution.
Applies to: Mistral Small 4 119B-A6.5BRecommended GPU
The cheapest catalogued GPU that runs Mistral Small 4 locally (min 73 GB VRAM) is the NVIDIA DGX Spark (128 GB).
Can I run Mistral Small 4 on my GPU?
- Mistral Small 4 on AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M1 Max
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M1 Pro
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M1 Ultra
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M2 Max
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M2 Pro
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M3 Max
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M3 Pro
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M4
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M4 Max
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M5
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M5 Max
- Mistral Small 4 on Apple M5 Pro
- Mistral Small 4 on NVIDIA A100 80GB (PCIe)
- Mistral Small 4 on NVIDIA DGX Spark
- Mistral Small 4 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
- Mistral Small 4 on NVIDIA H100 80GB (PCIe)
- Mistral Small 4 on NVIDIA L40S
- Mistral Small 4 on NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation
- Mistral Small 4 on NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell
Mistral Small 4 — frequently asked questions
How much VRAM does Mistral Small 4 need?
Mistral Small 4 needs about 73 GB VRAM at Q4_K_M quantization for its smallest variant. Variants: Mistral Small 4 119B-A6.5B (73 GB, Q4_K_M). On Apple Silicon, unified memory counts toward this requirement.
Can I run Mistral Small 4 on an RTX 4090 (24 GB)?
Mistral Small 4's smallest variant needs about 73 GB, which exceeds a single RTX 4090 (24 GB). Use multiple GPUs, a higher-VRAM card, or Apple Silicon with large unified memory.
What quantization should I use for Mistral Small 4?
Q4_K_M is the best balance of quality and VRAM for Mistral Small 4 in most cases. Choose Q8_0 for near-lossless quality if you have spare VRAM, or smaller quants (Q3/Q2) only when memory is tight.
How do I run Mistral Small 4 with Ollama?
Install Ollama, then run: ollama run mistral-small. This downloads Mistral Small 4 and starts a local, OpenAI-compatible endpoint — no internet connection is needed after the initial download.