Model Comparison

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude Opus 4.6 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct — which is better?

Claude Opus 4.6 (by Anthropic) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct (by Mistral AI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude Opus 4.6 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude Opus 4.6 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2026

Choose Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Claude Opus 4.6 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude Opus 4.6 specifies input context (1,000,000 tokens). Only Claude Opus 4.6 specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.6
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Claude Opus 4.6 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Claude Opus 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Opus 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

Claude Opus 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Opus 4.6 was released on 2026-02-05, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct was released on 2025-03-17.

Claude Opus 4.6 is 11 months newer than Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.

Claude Opus 4.6

Feb 5, 2026

4 months ago

10mo newer
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

Mar 17, 2025

1.2 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (1,000,000 tokens)
Higher GPQA score (91.3% vs 46.0%)
Mistral AI
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.6
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Opus 4.6 vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.6 or Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.6 is made by Anthropic and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude Opus 4.6 compare to Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude Opus 4.6 scores Vending-Bench 2: 100.0%, AIME 2025: 99.8%, Tau2 Telecom: 99.3%, Graphwalks parents >128k: 95.4%, MRCR v2 (8-needle): 93.0%. Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct scores HumanEval: 88.4%, MMLU: 80.6%, TriviaQA: 80.5%, MBPP: 74.7%, MATH: 69.3%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Opus 4.6 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1.0M tokens and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct 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 Opus 4.6 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Opus 4.6 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct?

Claude Opus 4.6 is developed by Anthropic and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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