Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Ministral 3 3B 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 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… scores 48.4 points higher (53.2 vs 4.8) but costs 741× as much to run the benchmark ($9063 vs $12.2; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallba… when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 53.2 | 4.8 | −91.0% Ministral 3 3B is 91.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $9,063.11 | $12.23 | −99.9% Ministral 3 3B is 99.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 104.03s | 3.29s | −96.8% Ministral 3 3B is 96.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 91.0% less intelligence, 99.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 57.60 for $8708.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Ministral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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