Model Comparison

Claude Opus 5 vs Mistral Small 3 24B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Comparing Claude Opus 5 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Verdict: Claude Opus 5 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct — which is better?

Claude Opus 5 (by Anthropic) and Mistral Small 3 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.

On price, Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is roughly 114.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude Opus 5 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Choose Claude Opus 5 if…

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026

Choose Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct if…

  • cost matters — it's about 114.3x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

No common benchmarks found

Claude Opus 5 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instructdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude Opus 5 ($5.00/1M tokens) is 71.4x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.07/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Opus 5 ($25.00/1M tokens) is 178.6x more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct ($0.14/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Opus 5 is more expensive than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Jul 24 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Opus 5
Input tokens$5.00
Output tokens$25.00
Best providerAnthropic
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input tokens$0.07
Output tokens$0.14
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Opus 5 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's 32,000 tokens. Claude Opus 5 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is limited to 32,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Opus 5
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Input32,000 tokens
Output32,000 tokens
Fri Jul 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Opus 5 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct does not.

Claude Opus 5 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Opus 5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Opus 5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

Claude Opus 5

Proprietary

Closed source

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Opus 5 was released on 2026-07-24, while Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct was released on 2025-01-30.

Claude Opus 5 is 18 months newer than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Claude Opus 5

Jul 24, 2026

0 days ago

1.5yr newer
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Jan 30, 2025

1.5 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-10-01, while Claude Opus 5's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct's training data extends to 2023-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Claude Opus 5's cutoff date.

Claude Opus 5

—

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

Oct 2023

Provider Availability

Claude Opus 5 is available from Anthropic. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Mistral AI.

Claude Opus 5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $5.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $25.00/1M

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.07/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.14/1M
mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.30/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (1,000,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Mistral AI
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Opus 5 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Opus 5
✓ Preferred
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Opus 5
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Opus 5 vs Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude Opus 5 or Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Claude Opus 5 (Anthropic) and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct (Mistral AI) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Claude Opus 5 compare to Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude Opus 5 scores BrowseComp: 90.8%, BioMysteryBench: 90.1%, OSWorld 2.0: 70.6%, DeepSWE 1.1: 68.8%, Humanity's Last Exam: 64.7%. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct scores Arena Hard: 87.6%, HumanEval: 84.8%, MT-Bench: 83.5%, IFEval: 82.9%, MATH: 70.6%.

Is Claude Opus 5 cheaper than Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is 71.4x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Opus 5 costs $5.00/M input and $25.00/M output via anthropic. Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct costs $0.07/M input and $0.14/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Opus 5 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Claude Opus 5 supports 1.0M tokens and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct supports 32K 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 5 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Key differences include context window (1.0M vs 32K), input pricing ($5.00 vs $0.07/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Opus 5 and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct?

Claude Opus 5 is developed by Anthropic and Mistral Small 3 24B Instruct is developed by Mistral AI.

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