Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Ministral 3 14B
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Ministral 3 14B 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 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 51.6 points higher (57.6 vs 6.0) but costs 232× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $37.6; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 6.0, and Ministral 3 14B when 6.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Ministral 3 14B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 6.0 | −89.6% Ministral 3 14B is 89.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $37.56 | −99.6% Ministral 3 14B is 99.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 711.14s | 8.02s | −98.9% Ministral 3 14B is 98.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.20 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 14B vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 89.6% less intelligence, 99.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 98.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Ministral 3 14B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Ministral 3 14BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
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