Field Guide · Week of 17 August 2026
Mistral Small 4
Mistral · Europe · France
Europe’s best laptop-class model this year. French lab, Apache license, mixture-of-experts that fits a strong machine.
- Where it runs
- Runs on your computer
- Memory
- 24–32 GB (4-bit)
- Size
- 119B MoE · 6B active
- License
- Apache 2.0
Why it is on this week’s list
If the weight has to be European, this is the one we put on a 32 GB Mac.
Use it when
A 24 GB+ machine and a preference for EU origin.
Skip it when
16 GB — take Ministral or Gemma 12B.