Mistral Small 3.1 vs Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral or Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) by Meta? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) scores 32.5 points higher (39.6 vs 7.1) but costs 50× as much to run the benchmark ($1385 vs $27.8; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Mistral Small 3.1 | Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 7.1 | 39.6 | +457.7% Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) is 5.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.82 | $1,385.40 | +4879.9% Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) is 50× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.25s | 20.60s | +83.1% Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) is 83.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.08 / $0.14 | $1.25 / $4.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) vs Mistral Small 3.1: 457.7% more intelligence, 4879.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 83.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mistral Small 3.1 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Mistral Small 3.1Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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