Model comparison
Mistral Small 3 vs Muse Spark 1.1
Muse Spark 1.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 49.9 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 35× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
MetaSummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Muse Spark 1.1 in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Muse Spark 1.1 leads 73.4 to 32.2.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.1.
- Muse Spark 1.1 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Meta |
| Noometry Index | 31.2 | 49.9 |
| Released | 2025-01-30 | 2026-04-08 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 33K | 1.05M |
| Max output | 16K | 131K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.05 | $1.25 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.08 | $4.25 |
| Results tracked | 24 | 37 |
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Category by category
Coding Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207), Muse Spark 1.1: 51.3 (#40)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1498 |
| DeepSWE | — | 53.3% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1542 |
| SciCode | — | 58.8% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Mistral Small 3: —, Muse Spark 1.1: 30.8 (#73)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 31.8% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 40.5% |
| GBAEval | — | 7.9% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 15% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 6,520 |
Reasoning Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273), Muse Spark 1.1: 47.1 (#44)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1486 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.07 | 154.21 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 84.9% |
| CritPt | — | 15.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | — | 94.4% |
| LMCA | — | 49.9% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 52.5% |
Math Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295), Muse Spark 1.1: 45.5 (#76)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1483 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 39% |
Knowledge Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263), Muse Spark 1.1: 53.1 (#59)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1478 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 57.8% |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Mistral Small 3: —, Muse Spark 1.1: 42.6 (#29)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1293 |
| LMArena Document | — | 1465 |
Multilingual Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236), Muse Spark 1.1: 56.7 (#17)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1518 |
| LMArena French | 1203 | 1494 |
| LMArena German | 1211 | 1466 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | 1451 |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | 1458 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1483 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1464 |
Instruction Following Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229), Muse Spark 1.1: 76.5 (#39)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1457 |
Long Context Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211), Muse Spark 1.1: 44.8 (#58)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1462 |
Writing & Preference Muse Spark 1.1 leads
Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280), Muse Spark 1.1: 73.4 (#11)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.1 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1479 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1437 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | 1927 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1485 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1260 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Small 3 better than Muse Spark 1.1?
Muse Spark 1.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 49.9 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 35× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Muse Spark 1.1?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Muse Spark 1.1 lists at $1.25 and $4.25.
Is Mistral Small 3 or Muse Spark 1.1 better for coding?
Muse Spark 1.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.3 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Muse Spark 1.1 does, with 1.05M tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Muse Spark 1.1 share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Muse Spark 1.1 has 37.