Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 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 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 51.2 points higher (56.0 vs 4.8) but costs 594× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $12.2; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 4.8 | −91.4% Ministral 3 3B is 91.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $12.23 | −99.8% Ministral 3 3B is 99.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 447.79s | 3.07s | −99.3% Ministral 3 3B is 99.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 91.4% less intelligence, 99.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 99.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Ministral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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