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Claude Opus 4.8 vs Mistral Large 3 — Price, Context, and Capability Compared

Verdict

Claude Opus 4.8 costs 3.3× more per blended million tokens than Mistral Large 3. Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window (500,000 tokens). Default to Mistral Large 3 unless you specifically need Claude Opus 4.8's edge. Only Claude Opus 4.8 exposes an extended-thinking mode.

Spec comparison

Claude Opus 4.8Mistral Large 3
Price (input)$5.00/M$2.00/M
Price (output)$25.00/M$6.00/M
Blended price$10.00/M$3.00/M
Context window500,000 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output64,000 tokens32,768 tokens
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision
Reasoning modeYesNo
Released2026-042026-01
Speed58 t/s61 t/s

Cost at scale (3:1 blended)

Tokens / monthClaude Opus 4.8Mistral Large 3Delta
1,000,000$10.00$3.00$7.00 (3.3×)
10,000,000$100.00$30.00$70.00 (3.3×)
100,000,000$1000.00$300.00$700.00 (3.3×)

Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if…

  • Elite coding and multi-step reasoning
  • Strong instruction following on ambiguous prompts
  • Extended-thinking mode
  • Complex, multi-step tasks where Fable 5’s premium isn’t justified.

Choose Mistral Large 3 if…

  • Mistral’s flagship reasoning and coding model
  • Low price relative to other frontier models
  • EU-hosted option available
  • Strong reasoning and coding at a lower cost than the big-lab flagships.

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FAQ

Is Claude Opus 4.8 cheaper than Mistral Large 3?

Mistral Large 3 is cheaper, at $3.00 per million blended tokens vs $10.00 for Claude Opus 4.8.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Opus 4.8 or Mistral Large 3?

Claude Opus 4.8 has the larger context window: 500,000 tokens vs 131,072.

Can Claude Opus 4.8 replace Mistral Large 3 for coding?

Both are viable for coding. Elite coding and multi-step reasoning (Claude Opus 4.8) vs Mistral’s flagship reasoning and coding model (Mistral Large 3) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.8 or Mistral Large 3?

Mistral Large 3 is faster: 61 t/s vs 58 t/s, measured on our speed benchmarks.

Related

Claude Opus 4.8 pricingMistral Large 3 pricingvs Grok 4.3vs Gemini 3.1 Provs Claude Opus 4vs Claude Fable 5Premium model tests

Pricing verified 2026-06-07. Specs verified 2026-08-08.