Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) vs Mistral Small 3.1
Which is better for the money: Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) scores 42.5 points higher (49.6 vs 7.1) but costs 401× as much to run the benchmark ($11161 vs $27.8; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) | Mistral Small 3.1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.6 | 7.1 | −85.7% Mistral Small 3.1 is 85.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $11,160.86 | $27.82 | −99.8% Mistral Small 3.1 is 99.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 85.62s | 11.25s | −86.9% Mistral Small 3.1 is 86.9% 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 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback): 85.7% less intelligence, 99.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 57.60 for $8708.
- 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 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback)Mistral Small 3.1Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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