Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Mistral Large 4 Preview
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Mistral Large 4 Preview by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-29.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 33.1 points higher (58.4 vs 25.3) but costs 3.0× as much to run the benchmark ($8910 vs $2923; both flagship class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 25.3, and Mistral Large 4 Preview when 25.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Mistral Large 4 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 58.4 | 25.3 | −56.7% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 56.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,909.67 | $2,923.39 | −67.2% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 67.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 637.94s | 25.54s | −96.0% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 96.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.70 / $2.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Large 4 Preview vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 56.7% less intelligence, 67.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Gemini 4 Carbon (High) scores 59.40 for $8240.
- Mistral Large 4 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.50 for $1124.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Mistral Large 4 PreviewToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/mistral-large-4-preview · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-5/mistral-large-4-preview?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill