Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, 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 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 52.8 points higher (57.6 vs 4.8) but costs 712× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $12.2; 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 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 4.8 | −91.7% Ministral 3 3B is 91.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $12.23 | −99.9% Ministral 3 3B is 99.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 3.07s | −99.5% Ministral 3 3B is 99.5% 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 (Max, Default Fallback): 91.7% less intelligence, 99.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 99.5% 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 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 (Max, Default Fallback)Ministral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/ministral-3-3b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/ministral-3-3b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill