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Claude 3 Opus vs Magistral Small 2506

Magistral Small 2506 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Anthropic · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Magistral Small 2506 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Magistral Small 2506 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude 3 Opus

  • you want predictable pricing at $15.00/M input and $75.00/M output

Choose Magistral Small 2506

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jun 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude 3 Opus
Anthropic
Magistral Small 2506
Mistral AI
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
$15.00 / M
— / M
Output price
$75.00 / M
— / M
Context window
200,000
—
Released
Feb 2024
Jun 2025
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Magistral Small 2506 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Magistral Small 2506 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Thu Aug 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude 3 Opus specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude 3 Opus specifies output context (200,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude 3 Opus
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Magistral Small 2506
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Thu Aug 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude 3 Opus supports multimodal inputs, whereas Magistral Small 2506 does not.

Claude 3 Opus can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude 3 Opus

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Magistral Small 2506

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3 Opus is licensed under a proprietary license, while Magistral Small 2506 uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude 3 Opus

Proprietary

Closed source

Magistral Small 2506

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3 Opus was released on 2024-02-29, while Magistral Small 2506 was released on 2025-06-10.

Magistral Small 2506 is 16 months newer than Claude 3 Opus.

Claude 3 Opus

Feb 29, 2024

2.5 years ago

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 10, 2025

1.2 years ago

1.3yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Magistral Small 2506 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-06-01, while Claude 3 Opus's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Magistral Small 2506's training data extends to 2025-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude 3 Opus's cutoff date.

Claude 3 Opus

—

Magistral Small 2506

Jun 2025

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Opus and Magistral Small 2506 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude 3 Opus
✓ Preferred
Magistral Small 2506
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3 Opus vs Magistral Small 2506.

Which is better, Claude 3 Opus or Magistral Small 2506?

Magistral Small 2506 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude 3 Opus is made by Anthropic and Magistral Small 2506 is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude 3 Opus compare to Magistral Small 2506 in benchmarks?

Claude 3 Opus scores ARC-C: 96.4%, HellaSwag: 95.4%, GSM8k: 95.0%, MGSM: 90.7%, BIG-Bench Hard: 86.8%. Magistral Small 2506 scores AIME 2024: 70.7%, GPQA: 68.2%, AIME 2025: 62.8%, LiveCodeBench: 51.3%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3 Opus and Magistral Small 2506?

Claude 3 Opus supports 200K tokens and Magistral Small 2506 supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3 Opus and Magistral Small 2506?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3 Opus and Magistral Small 2506?

Claude 3 Opus is developed by Anthropic and Magistral Small 2506 is developed by Mistral AI.

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