Claude 3 Haiku vs Pixtral-12B
Claude 3 Haiku and Pixtral-12B are closely matched at -1.5 and -1.6 on the LLM Stats Score. Pixtral-12B is 3.3x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude 3 Haiku and Pixtral-12B are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -1.5 and -1.6.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude 3 Haiku wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Pixtral-12B is roughly 3.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Claude 3 Haiku also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude 3 Haiku
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
Choose Pixtral-12B
- cost matters — it's about 3.3x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2024
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
10 reported for Claude 3 Haiku · 12 for Pixtral-12B
Claude 3 Haiku outperforms in 2 benchmarks (HumanEval, MMLU), while Pixtral-12B is better at 1 benchmark (MATH).
Claude 3 Haiku shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3 Haiku ($0.25/1M tokens) is 1.7x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3 Haiku ($1.25/1M tokens) is 8.3x more expensive than Pixtral-12B ($0.15/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3 Haiku is more expensive than Pixtral-12B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Claude 3 Haiku accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Pixtral-12B's 128,000 tokens. Claude 3 Haiku can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while Pixtral-12B is limited to 8,192 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Claude 3 Haiku and Pixtral-12B support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude 3 Haiku
Pixtral-12B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude 3 Haiku is licensed under a proprietary license, while Pixtral-12B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3 Haiku was released on 2024-03-13, while Pixtral-12B was released on 2024-09-17.
Pixtral-12B is 6 months newer than Claude 3 Haiku.
Mar 13, 2024
2.6 years ago
Sep 17, 2024
2.0 years ago
6mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude 3 Haiku is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Pixtral-12B is available from Mistral AI.
Claude 3 Haiku
Pixtral-12B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Haiku and Pixtral-12B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3 Haiku vs Pixtral-12B.