Claude Opus 4.8 vs Mistral Large 4: price, scores, context

Side-by-side comparison

Criterion	Claude Opus 4.8	Mistral Large 4
Developer	Anthropic	Mistral AI
Released	May 28, 2026	October 6, 2026
Capability index	83.4 / 100	79.7 / 100
Input price	$5	$1.36
Output price	$25	$4.18
Cost of a typical task	$0.15	$0.036
Context window	1,000,000 tokens	1,048,576 tokens
Maximum output	128,000 tokens	262,144 tokens
Reasoning mode	Yes	Yes
Tool calling	Yes	Yes
Accepted inputs	text, image, PDF	text, image, PDF
Open weights	No	No
Knowledge cutoff	January 2026	Not disclosed

What are we comparing?

This comparison pits two mid-range models, balancing quality and cost against each other: Claude Opus 4.8 and Mistral Large 4, one from Anthropic, the other from Mistral AI. The first dates from May 28, 2026, the second from October 6, 2026.

All figures below come from public sources checked on October 22, 2026: models.dev and OpenRouter for prices and capabilities, Epoch AI for scores.

Which one is more capable?

On our capability index, Claude Opus 4.8 scores 83.4 out of 100 and Mistral Large 4 79.7. Claude Opus 4.8 leads by 3.7 points.

On the 4 benchmarks reported for both, Claude Opus 4.8 wins 3 times and Mistral Large 4 0:

GPQA Diamond (PhD-level science questions): Claude Opus 4.8 91%, Mistral Large 4 88.1%
OTIS Mock AIME (competition mathematics problems): Claude Opus 4.8 98.3%, Mistral Large 4 98.3%
FrontierMath (very hard research-level mathematics): Claude Opus 4.8 80%, Mistral Large 4 58.6%
FrontierCode (advanced programming tasks): Claude Opus 4.8 46.5%, Mistral Large 4 39.4%

Pricing

Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 4 costs $1.36 and $4.18.

For a typical agent task (read 20,000 tokens, write 2,000), expect $0.15 with Claude Opus 4.8 versus $0.036 with Mistral Large 4. Mistral Large 4 is 4.2 times cheaper, a gap that adds up quickly over 1,000 tasks: $114.44 difference.

Run the numbers with your own volumes in the agent cost calculator.

Features and limits

Mistral Large 4 reads more in one go: 1,048,576 tokens of context (roughly 1,573 pages), versus 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 4.8.

Reasoning mode: Claude Opus 4.8 yes, Mistral Large 4 yes. Tool calling: Claude Opus 4.8 yes, Mistral Large 4 yes. Image input: Claude Opus 4.8 yes, Mistral Large 4 yes.

Neither publishes its weights: both are used through an API.

In short

Our reading of the data:

Choose Claude Opus 4.8 for a higher capability index.
Choose Mistral Large 4 for a lower cost and a more recent release.

This verdict relies on public figures; it does not replace a trial on your own tasks.

Frequently asked questions

Claude Opus 4.8 or Mistral Large 4: which is better?

On our index (Epoch AI data), Claude Opus 4.8 scores 83.4 and Mistral Large 4 79.7 out of 100. The best choice also depends on price and on your use case.

Which one is cheaper?

Mistral Large 4. To read 20,000 tokens and write 2,000, expect $0.15 with Claude Opus 4.8 and $0.036 with Mistral Large 4 (prices as of October 22, 2026).

Which one has the larger context window?

Mistral Large 4, with 1,048,576 tokens versus 1,000,000.

Can I run Claude Opus 4.8 or Mistral Large 4 on my own servers?

No: both are closed models, available through an API.

Claude Opus 4.8 versus Mistral Large 4