Claude Sonnet 5 (High) vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (High) 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 (High) scores 26.9 points higher (31.7 vs 4.8) but costs 171× as much to run the benchmark ($2086 vs $12.2; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (High) when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (High) | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 31.7 | 4.8 | −84.9% Ministral 3 3B is 84.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,086.04 | $12.23 | −99.4% Ministral 3 3B is 99.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 21.83s | 3.06s | −86.0% Ministral 3 3B is 86.0% 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 (High): 84.9% less intelligence, 99.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- 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 (High)Ministral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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