# Mistral Small 3 vs Muse Spark 1.2

> Muse Spark 1.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 49.8 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 35× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-small-3-vs-muse-spark-1-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 13

## Summary

- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Muse Spark 1.2 in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Muse Spark 1.2 leads 72.6 to 32.4.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.25 / $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.2.
- Muse Spark 1.2 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Meta |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 49.8 |
| Rank | 268 | 44 |
| Context | 33K | 1.05M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1.25 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $4.25 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 48.6 (#49)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1497 |
| DeepSWE | — | 54.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1532 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 12% |
| SciCode | — | 56.4% |
| WeirdML | — | 60.3% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Mistral Small 3: —
- Muse Spark 1.2: 29.5 (#77)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 36.4% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 16% |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 50.4 (#32)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1490 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.06 | 155.18 |
| SimpleBench | — | 74.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 79.2% |
| CritPt | — | 17.7% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | — | 94.7% |
| LMCA | — | 48.4% |

## Math

- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 43.8 (#68)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 43% |
| LMArena Math | 1240 | — |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 53.9 (#49)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1485 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 60.3% |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Mistral Small 3: —
- Muse Spark 1.2: 42.6 (#24)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1304 |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 57.4 (#10)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1479 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1494 |
| LMArena French | 1202 | — |
| LMArena German | 1211 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 77.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1466 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 45.4 (#35)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1483 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)
- Muse Spark 1.2: 72.6 (#14)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1486 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1444 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | 1840 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1504 |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Small 3 better than Muse Spark 1.2?

Muse Spark 1.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 49.8 to 30.9 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 35× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Muse Spark 1.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3 or Muse Spark 1.2?

Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Muse Spark 1.2 lists at $1.25 and $4.25.

### Is Mistral Small 3 or Muse Spark 1.2 better for coding?

Muse Spark 1.2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 36.0 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Muse Spark 1.2 does, with 1.05M tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Muse Spark 1.2 share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Muse Spark 1.2 has 28.