Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) vs Ministral 3 8B
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Ministral 3 8B by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallbac… scores 45.7 points higher (51.2 vs 5.5) but costs 191× as much to run the benchmark ($5242 vs $27.5; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) | Ministral 3 8B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.2 | 5.5 | −89.3% Ministral 3 8B is 89.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,241.59 | $27.47 | −99.5% Ministral 3 8B is 99.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 25.53s | 5.36s | −79.0% Ministral 3 8B is 79.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.15 / $0.15 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 8B vs Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback): 89.3% less intelligence, 99.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 79.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Ministral 3 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback)Ministral 3 8BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-high/ministral-3-8b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-fable-5-1-high/ministral-3-8b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill