BenchLeader

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Muse Spark 1.3

Full profiles: Claude Opus 4.8 (Anthropic) and Muse Spark 1.3 (Meta): every benchmark, price and rank.

Updated · Data from 12 sources

As of 24 Oct 2026, Claude Opus 4.8 (max) and Muse Spark 1.3 (max) are neck and neck on quality (63.3 vs 67.1 on the BenchLeader Index, inside the ±6.5 margin of error), and Muse Spark 1.3 (max) costs 5.0× less, which makes it the better buy for most workloads. Pick Claude Opus 4.8 for maths (68 vs 63); pick Muse Spark 1.3 for agents & tools (66 vs 57).

Which to pick for…

The pick's numbers come first. Category scores on the BenchLeader scale (50 is the average model, 15 points one standard deviation). High confidence means a lead of half a standard deviation or more; under one point is called either.

Use casePickWhyConfidence
CodingMuse Spark 1.365 vs 59 category score; SciCode 58.8% vs 53.5%Medium
Agents & tool useMuse Spark 1.366 vs 57 category score; τ³-Banking (AA) 50.5% vs 34.2%High
MathsClaude Opus 4.868 vs 63 category score; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 80.0% vs 74.0%Medium
ReasoningMuse Spark 1.377 vs 69 category score; CritPt 24.9% vs 20.9%High
KnowledgeMuse Spark 1.373 vs 67 category score; AA-Omniscience 25 vs 28.8Medium
Long documentsMuse Spark 1.367 vs 64 category score; AA-LCR 83.0% vs 77.7%Medium
Chat quality (human preference)–Only Muse Spark 1.3 has an Arena rating (69 category score)Not comparable
Lowest costMuse Spark 1.3$2.00 vs $10.00 per 1M blended; agentic coding session $0.092 vs $0.400–
Fastest first answerClaude Opus 4.827.5 s (Claude Opus 4.8 (max)) vs 90.1 s (Muse Spark 1.3 (max)) to the first answer token–
High volume on a budgetNeither flagshipA smaller model is usually the better fit: Cheapest good LLMs, Fastest LLMs–

Key differences

  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max) and Muse Spark 1.3 (max) are neck and neck on quality (63.3 vs 67.1, within the ±6.5 margin).
  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max) is stronger in instruction following, maths.
  • Muse Spark 1.3 (max) is stronger in agents & tools, coding, composite, knowledge, long context, reasoning, human preference, multimodal.
  • Muse Spark 1.3 (max) is 5.0× cheaper ($2.00 vs $10.00 per 1M blended).
  • Muse Spark 1.3 (max) streams 1.8× faster (116 vs 63 tokens per second).

At a glance

SpecClaude Opus 4.8Muse Spark 1.3
DeveloperAnthropicMeta
Released28 May 20262 Sept 2026
Context window (tokens)1,000,0001,048,576
Compared atClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Muse Spark 1.3 (max)
Open weightsNoNo
Price in / out / cached input per 1M$5.00 / $25.00 / $0.500$1.25 / $4.25 / $0.150

Category by category

Category scores on the BenchLeader scale: 50 is the average evaluated model, 15 points is one standard deviation. A gap under one point is called level.

CategoryClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Muse Spark 1.3 (max)Leader
Reasoning68.877.4Muse Spark 1.3
Coding58.964.5Muse Spark 1.3
Agents & tools56.565.6Muse Spark 1.3
Maths68.163.4Claude Opus 4.8
Knowledge66.972.8Muse Spark 1.3
Instruction following62.1–not comparable
Human preference–69.1not comparable
Multimodal–65.7not comparable
Long context63.866.6Muse Spark 1.3
Composite76.283.3Muse Spark 1.3

Where sources disagree

Across the 23 benchmarks both have, Claude Opus 4.8 leads 12, Muse Spark 1.3 leads 11. Every overall index that rates both puts Muse Spark 1.3 ahead.

Overall indexClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Muse Spark 1.3 (max)Leader
BenchLeader Index63.367.1neck and neck
AA Intelligence Index v4.3.241.848.1Muse Spark 1.3
Arena Text1482†1496Muse Spark 1.3

Each publisher runs its own tasks, harnesses and effort settings, so their overall verdicts can differ; BenchLeader reconciles them on one scale. † measured at another effort setting of the same model (the publisher did not test the one compared here).

Price, speed and latency

List prices blended at three input tokens per output token. Per-task prices use the token counts on the methodology page; suite cost is what Artificial Analysis paid to run its whole Intelligence Index.

MeasureClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Muse Spark 1.3 (max)
Blended price per 1M tokens$10.00$2.00
Input / output per 1M$5.00 / $25.00$1.25 / $4.25
Cached input per 1M$0.500$0.150
Price per task: chat reply$0.0095$0.0018
Price per task: summarize a 30-page report$0.075$0.018
Price per task: code edit$0.068$0.014
Price per task: agentic coding session$0.400$0.092
Price per task: structured extraction$0.015$0.0034
Cost to run a full benchmark suite$4.08$1.60
Output speed63 tok/s116 tok/s
Time to first answer27.5 s90.1 s
Time to a complete answer35.4 s94.4 s

Per token is not per task: on Artificial Analysis' full suite Claude Opus 4.8 (max) cost $4.08 and Muse Spark 1.3 (max) $1.60, because Muse Spark 1.3 (max) used about 2.0× as many tokens for the same work, which a per-token price hides.

Each model is compared at its best-ranked reasoning-effort setting. Claude Opus 4.8 (max) scores 63.3 and takes 28 s to its first answer token; Claude Opus 4.8 (high) scores 60.7 in 1 s, Claude Opus 4.8 scores 60.1 in 1 s. Muse Spark 1.3 (max) scores 67.1 and takes 90 s to its first answer token; Muse Spark 1.3 (xhigh) scores 64.9 in 30 s, Muse Spark 1.3 scores 59.8 in 3 s. Higher effort means more thinking before the answer: better scores, longer waits and more tokens billed. How reasoning effort changes scores and cost.

Every benchmark

147 benchmarks, grouped by category; each name links to the board and its leaders. † measured at another effort setting of the same model, shown for reference and not counted as a win.

MetricPublisherClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Muse Spark 1.3 (max)
BenchLeader IndexBenchLeader63.367.1
Agents & tools scoreBenchLeader56.565.6
Coding scoreBenchLeader58.964.5
Composite scoreBenchLeader76.283.3
Instruction following scoreBenchLeader62.1–
Knowledge scoreBenchLeader66.972.8
Long context scoreBenchLeader63.866.6
Maths scoreBenchLeader68.163.4
Reasoning scoreBenchLeader68.877.4
Human preference scoreBenchLeader–69.1
Multimodal scoreBenchLeader–65.7
Blended price $/MBenchLeader$10.00$2.00
Output speedBenchLeader63 tok/s116 tok/s
Time to first answerBenchLeader27.5 s90.1 s
Context windowBenchLeader1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Reasoning
GPQA DiamondEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub91.0%–
SimpleBenchSimpleBench64.8%†–
Arena Hard PromptsArena (LMArena)1505†1517
LiveBench 2.0 ReasoningLiveBench89.2%†89.7%†
LiveBench 1.0 ReasoningLiveBench89.2%89.7%†
GPQA Diamond (AA)Artificial Analysis92.0%93.5%
Humanity's Last Exam (AA)Artificial Analysis48.7%48.7%
GPQA Diamond (Vals)Vals AI92.4%†–
EnigmaEvalScale AI SEAL23.5%†–
Kagi LLM BenchmarkKagi LLM Benchmark88.8%†–
ARC-AGI-1ARC Prize92.5%–
ARC-AGI-2ARC Prize72.1%†–
ARC-AGI-3ARC Prize1.5%†–
CritPtArtificial Analysis20.9%24.9%
MysteryMechanismVals AI–36.0%
Chess PuzzlesEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub52.0%37.0%
Mystery Game PuzzlesEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub36.0%25.0%
LMCAEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub57.5%53.9%†
DTBenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub94.9%96.5%†
ForecastBenchForecastBench66.3%–
BTF-3Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub14.0%†14.1%†
Coding
SciCodeSciCode53.5%58.8%
WeirdMLWeirdML70.5%†–
FrontierCodeCognition46.5%†–
GSO-BenchGSO-Bench47.1%†–
Show all 147 benchmarks
MetricPublisherClaude Opus 4.8 (max)Muse Spark 1.3 (max)
Coding
Arena CodingArena (LMArena)1529†1536
Arena WebDevArena (LMArena)1536†1657
LiveBench 2.0 CodingLiveBench77.3%†90.2%†
LiveBench 1.0 CodingLiveBench81.8%81.1%†
SciCode (AA)Artificial Analysis54.4%58.8%
LiveCodeBenchVals AI87.8%†–
IOIVals AI–56.6%
SWE-bench (Vals)Vals AI88.6%†–
Code MigrationVals AI47.3%†47.4%
ProgramBenchVals AI1.0%†2.5%
SWE-bench MultimodalVals AI–43.1%
Vibe Code Bench 1-100Vals AI–20.5%
Vibe Code Bench v1.1Vals AI82.7%†85.9%
SWE Atlas: Codebase QnAScale AI SEAL57.3%†–
SWE Atlas: RefactoringScale AI SEAL46.7%†–
SWE Atlas: Test WritingScale AI SEAL49.6%†–
Surface Evolver BenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub87.5%†–
DeepSWE v1.1Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub59.0%–
CursorBenchCursor–41.6%
ALE-BenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub1563.8†1688.3†
FrontierSWEEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–25.8%
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (AA)Artificial Analysis21.7%33.3%
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis84.6%84.3%
Startrise FrontendStartrise–74.7%†
FrontierCode 1.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis–40.6%
Agents & tools
Terminal-BenchTerminal-Bench23.6%14.6%†
OSWorld-Verified 2.0OSWorld20.6%–
Remote Labor IndexScale AI / CAIS8.3%†–
APEX-AgentsMercor48.9%47.6%
Arena AgentArena (LMArena)–3.4
LiveBench Long AgenticLiveBench48.3%†40.4%†
LiveBench BrowserLiveBench96.0%†80.0%†
LiveBench Agentic CodingLiveBench50.5%64.1%†
Terminal-Bench HardArtificial Analysis58.3%–
τ²-Bench Telecom (AA)Artificial Analysis94.4%–
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals)Vals AI71.9%†79.0%
MCP AtlasScale AI SEAL82.2%–
HiL-BenchScale AI SEAL35.3%†66.9%†
τ³-bench Bankingτ²-bench39.7%–
τ³-Banking (AA)Artificial Analysis34.2%50.5%
ITBench SRE (AA)Artificial Analysis–33.2%
Analyst Agent (AA)Artificial Analysis45.0%37.5%
CUA-benchVals AI–5.8%
CyberBenchVals AI–72.7%
Finance Agent v2Vals AI53.9%†60.0%
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1Vals AI9.6%†23.8%
Legal Research BenchVals AI43.8%†55.3%
SkillsBenchVals AI59.2%†–
SREBenchVals AI–3.8%
Tax Agent BenchVals AI30.0%†42.4%
Terminal-Bench 2.0 (Vals)Vals AI70.0%†–
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Vals)Vals AI23.2%†24.8%
Terminal-Bench ScienceVals AI4.3%†10.0%
Time Horizon Index: KSPVals AI11.8%†–
Arena SearchArena (LMArena)1195†–
DeepResearch BenchDeepResearch Bench50.2%†–
PostTrainBenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub32.9%–
GBAEvalEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub70.9%†–
Vending-Bench 2Andon Labs2992.3–
AutomationBenchArtificial Analysis45.6%57.9%
GDP.pdf (AA)Artificial Analysis22.8%26.6%
Harvey LAB-AA v1.1Harvey–8.9%
EnterpriseOps-GymArtificial Analysis44.0%–
AA-Briefcase v1.1Artificial Analysis–1581
Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis–10.9%
FACTS SearchGoogle79.6%†–
Maths
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub80.0%74.0%
FrontierMath Tier 4Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub56.1%46.3%
OTIS Mock AIMEEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub98.3%99.2%†
ProofBenchVals AI69.0%58.0%
LiveBench MathematicsLiveBench94.3%96.0%†
AIME 2026MathArena100.0%–
HMMT February 2026MathArena95.5%–
MathArena ApexMathArena81.3%–
Arena MathsArena (LMArena)1477†1510
Knowledge
SimpleQA VerifiedEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub53.0%–
LiveBench 2.0 Data AnalysisLiveBench66.0%†79.6%†
LiveBench ResearchLiveBench81.8%†68.6%†
LiveBench 1.0 Data AnalysisLiveBench66.0%79.6%†
AA-OmniscienceArtificial Analysis28.825
MMLU-ProVals AI89.6%†–
LegalBenchVals AI83.6%†–
CorpFinVals AI66.7%†–
TaxEvalVals AI75.6%†–
PRBench FinanceScale AI SEAL–59.5%†
PRBench LegalScale AI SEAL–61.6%†
Excel Modeling BenchmarkVals AI69.4%†67.4%
MedCodeVals AI53.2%†–
MedScribeVals AI85.8%†–
Public Benefits Bench v1.1Vals AI68.1%†–
DrugDiscoveryBenchScale AI SEAL46.8%62.2%†
EBR-benchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub28.6%–
GDP.pdfEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub24.0%27.6%†
AA-Omniscience: accuracyArtificial Analysis48.8%43.6%
AA-Omniscience: non-hallucinationArtificial Analysis60.8%67.1%
Instruction following
LiveBench LanguageLiveBench79.7%82.8%†
LiveBench Instruction FollowingLiveBench72.0%78.0%†
IFBenchArtificial Analysis62.2%–
Arena Instruction FollowingArena (LMArena)1478†1485
Human preference
Arena TextArena (LMArena)1474†1496
EQ-Bench 4EQ-Bench1281†–
Arena Creative WritingArena (LMArena)1463†1463
Arena Multi-turnArena (LMArena)1495†1494
Arena Longer QueriesArena (LMArena)1499†1497
Multimodal
Arena VisionArena (LMArena)1289†1308
LiveBench DesignLiveBench78.8%†74.8%†
MMMU-ProArtificial Analysis–82.0%†
MMMU-Pro (Vals)Vals AI86.6%†–
MortgageTaxVals AI69.9%†–
SAGEVals AI54.8%†–
Blueprint-Bench 2Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub14.5%†–
AA-3DArtificial Analysis–1037
Long context
AA-LCRArtificial Analysis77.7%83.0%
Arena DocumentArena (LMArena)1475†1468
MLCRArtificial Analysis19.4%13.9%
Composite
Epoch Capabilities IndexEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub159.0†157.2†
LiveBench 2.0LiveBench76.8%†74.8%†
LiveBench 1.0LiveBench76.2%81.6%†
AA Intelligence Index v4.3.2Artificial Analysis41.848.1
Vals RSI IndexVals AI24.0%19.6%
Vals Multimodal IndexVals AI70.9%†–
Safety & honesty
FORTRESSScale AI SEAL18.2%–

Data as of 2026-10-24. Best configuration of each model; every score links to its source on the model pages.

What changed

  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 1 new result (Vals RSI Index).
  • Muse Spark 1.3 (max): 3 new results (Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1, Vals RSI Index, SWE-bench Multimodal); 1 score revision.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 1 score revision.
  • Muse Spark 1.3 (max): 1 score revision.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 1 new result (ForecastBench).
  • Muse Spark 1.3 (max): 1 score revision.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max): BenchLeader Index 62.5 → 63.4.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 5 new results (AutomationBench, GDP.pdf (AA), MLCR…).
  • Muse Spark 1.3 (max): 2 new results (ProgramBench, SREBench); 1 score revision.
  • Claude Opus 4.8 (max): 1 score revision.

Rankings: Best LLM overall · Best LLM for agents · Best cheap LLMs

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Muse Spark 1.3: questions

Is Claude Opus 4.8 better than Muse Spark 1.3?
Claude Opus 4.8 (max) and Muse Spark 1.3 (max) are neck and neck on quality (63.3 vs 67.1, within the ±6.5 margin). The BenchLeader Index combines every independent quality benchmark; the two are within the margin of error as of 2026-10-24, so check the category scores for your use.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.3, and will that change?
Muse Spark 1.3 is cheaper today: $2.00 against $10.00 per million tokens, blended at three input tokens per output token. No price change has been announced for either.
Is Claude Opus 4.8 better than Muse Spark 1.3 for coding?
Muse Spark 1.3 scores higher in coding (65 vs 59 on the category index, where 50 is average). On SciCode, the top shared coding benchmark, it is 53.5% for Claude Opus 4.8 against 58.8% for Muse Spark 1.3.
Is Claude Opus 4.8 better than Muse Spark 1.3 for agents and tool use?
Muse Spark 1.3 scores higher in agentic tasks (66 vs 57 on the category index, where 50 is average). On τ³-Banking (AA), the top shared agents & tools benchmark, it is 34.2% for Claude Opus 4.8 against 50.5% for Muse Spark 1.3.
Which is better for long documents?
Muse Spark 1.3 scores higher on long-context benchmarks (67 vs 64). Both take about 1M tokens: Claude Opus 4.8 1,000,000, Muse Spark 1.3 1,048,576.
Which has lower latency?
Claude Opus 4.8 (max) answers first: 27.5 s against 90.1 s to the first answer token, as Artificial Analysis measures it. Reasoning effort drives most of this: a higher setting thinks longer before it answers.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.3?
Muse Spark 1.3 streams faster: 116 against 63 output tokens per second.
Do independent benchmarks agree on Claude Opus 4.8 vs Muse Spark 1.3?
Across the 23 benchmarks both have, Claude Opus 4.8 leads 12, Muse Spark 1.3 leads 11. Every overall index that rates both puts Muse Spark 1.3 ahead.
When was Muse Spark 1.3 released?
Muse Spark 1.3 was released on 2 Sept 2026.