Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Mistral Small 3.1
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) scores 39.7 points higher (46.8 vs 7.1) but costs 114× as much to run the benchmark ($3158 vs $27.8; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) | Mistral Small 3.1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 46.8 | 7.1 | −84.8% Mistral Small 3.1 is 84.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,157.66 | $27.82 | −99.1% Mistral Small 3.1 is 99.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.73s | 10.55s | −1.7% Mistral Small 3.1 is 1.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.08 / $0.14 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.1 vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback): 84.8% less intelligence, 99.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- Mistral Small 3.1 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback)Mistral Small 3.1Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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