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AI Choice Engine

Model comparison

Mistral Large 3 vs Muse Spark 1.2

Mistral against Meta, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Mistral

Mistral Large 3

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Meta

Muse Spark 1.2

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationMistral Large 3Muse Spark 1.2
ProviderMistralMeta
TierFrontierFrontier
Context window262KWinner: 1.05M
Max outputNot verifiedUnverifiedNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokensWinner: $0.50$1.25
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $1.50$4.25
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters675B total / 41B active (sparse MoE)Meta frontier model
Reasoning levelsNot verifiedUnverifiedminimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, max
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video, audio, pdf
LicenseApache 2.0Not disclosedUnverified
API model idmistral-large-2512muse-spark-1.2
ReleasedDecember 2, 2025August 5, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)9.3Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified39.6
GPQA Diamond (2026-09-26)68Not verifiedUnverified

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis GPQA Diamond (independent; replaces Mistral's non-comparable base-model 5-shot 43.9)

    Graduate-level science reasoning: multiple-choice questions written by domain PhDs.

    Comparable with caveatSmall question pool: differences under ~2 points are within run-to-run noise. Chain-of-thought vs direct answering must match to compare. Saturated: frontier models score ~93–96% and Artificial Analysis dropped it from its Intelligence Index in v4.3 — use Humanity's Last Exam for hard reasoning.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check measuredAt.

Pricing tiers

Mistral Large 3: Mistral first-party API $0.50/$1.50 per MTok; cached input $0.05/MTok. Open weights (Apache 2.0), EU-hosted.

Muse Spark 1.2: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3 is Mistral's December 2025 open-weight (Apache 2.0) 675B/41B sparse MoE with a 262K context at $0.50/$1.50 — Mistral now features Medium 3.5 as its flagship.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Multimodal EU-hosted inference
  • Balanced frontier work

Watch out

No longer Mistral's featured flagship (Medium 3.5 is) and far behind it on the Artificial Analysis index; max output is not published. Verify multimodal support and EU data residency on your endpoint.

FrontierRecord checked September 26, 2026

Muse Spark 1.2

Muse Spark 1.2 is Meta's closed frontier model until the 1.3 refresh (2026-09-02) — still served and ranked in the LMArena text top 10 as of mid-2026.

Best for

  • Frontier reasoning
  • Meta ecosystem
  • Agentic work

Watch out

Closed-weights (unlike Llama 4); Meta's post-Llama-4 frontier branding.

When the cheaper one wins

Mistral Large 3 is cheaper on output at $1.50 per million tokens against $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — about 2.8×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 3/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output, reasoning levels.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Mistral Large 3 · Muse Spark 1.2

Common questions

Mistral Large 3 vs Muse Spark 1.2

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Mistral Large 3 or Muse Spark 1.2 cheaper for input?
Mistral Large 3 is cheaper at $0.50 per million input tokens, against $1.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — roughly 2.5× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Mistral Large 3 has tiered pricing: Mistral first-party API $0.50/$1.50 per MTok; cached input $0.05/MTok. Open weights (Apache 2.0), EU-hosted. Muse Spark 1.2 has tiered pricing: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.
Is Mistral Large 3 or Muse Spark 1.2 cheaper for output?
Mistral Large 3 is cheaper at $1.50 per million output tokens, against $4.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — roughly 2.8× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Mistral Large 3 has tiered pricing: Mistral first-party API $0.50/$1.50 per MTok; cached input $0.05/MTok. Open weights (Apache 2.0), EU-hosted. Muse Spark 1.2 has tiered pricing: $1.25/$4.25 per MTok on Meta's Model API (Standard tier shared with Muse Spark 1.3; cached input $0.15). Closed weights.
Which has the larger context window, Mistral Large 3 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Muse Spark 1.2 accepts 1.05M tokens against 262K for Mistral Large 3. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Should I use Mistral Large 3 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Mistral Large 3 suits open-weight deployments; Muse Spark 1.2 suits frontier reasoning.
Can I self-host Mistral Large 3 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Mistral Large 3 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Muse Spark 1.2 is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Mistral Large 3 costs $0.50 per 1M tokens versus $1.25 for Muse Spark 1.2 — a 2.5x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Muse Spark 1.2 takes 1.05M against 262K for Mistral Large 3 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Muse Spark 1.2 leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 39.6 to 9.3 (measured 2026-09-26).
  • Deployment: Mistral Large 3 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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