Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, 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 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) scores 37.5 points higher (42.3 vs 4.8) but costs 70× as much to run the benchmark ($860 vs $12.2; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.3 | 4.8 | −88.7% Ministral 3 3B is 88.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $860.33 | $12.23 | −98.6% Ministral 3 3B is 98.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.14s | 3.07s | −79.7% Ministral 3 3B is 79.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 88.7% less intelligence, 98.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 79.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)Ministral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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