Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Ministral 3 8B
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Ministral 3 8B 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 52.1 points higher (57.6 vs 5.5) but costs 317× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $27.5; 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 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Ministral 3 8B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 5.5 | −90.5% Ministral 3 8B is 90.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $27.47 | −99.7% Ministral 3 8B is 99.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 5.40s | −99.1% Ministral 3 8B is 99.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.15 / $0.15 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 8B vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 90.5% less intelligence, 99.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 99.1% 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 8B 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 8BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
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