Claude Fable 5.1 vs Inkling Small vs Mistral Large 4
Too close to call on our weighted score (Inkling Small 68, Mistral Large 4 67, Claude Fable 5.1 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.
AnthropicClaude Fable 5.1
66/100- ECI166.4
- Price$10.00 / $50.00
- Context1M
Thinking MachinesInkling Small
68/100- ECI150.5
- Price$0.58 / $1.44
- Context1.05M
Mistral AIMistral Large 4
67/100- ECI150.6
- Price$0.70 / $2.10
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Inkling Small 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100, Claude Fable 5.1 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Fable 5.1 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Fable 5.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Fable 5.1 166.4 · Mistral Large 4 150.6 · Inkling Small 150.5
- Lowest priceInkling SmallInkling Small $0.795 · Mistral Large 4 $1.05 · Claude Fable 5.1 $20.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextInkling Small and Mistral Large 4Inkling Small 1,048,576 · Mistral Large 4 1,048,576 · Claude Fable 5.1 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Fable 5.1 and Inkling SmallClaude Fable 5.1: Text, Images, PDFs · Inkling Small: Text, Images, Audio · Mistral Large 4: Text, Images
- Self-hostingInkling SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Claude Fable 5.1 | Inkling Small | Mistral Large 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 97 | 77 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 0 | 52 | 47 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 70 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 66/100 | 68/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | Inkling SmallThinking Machines | Mistral Large 4Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 166.4 (best) | 150.5 | 150.6 |
| ECI rank | #6 of 165 (best) | #58 of 165 | #57 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 88.5% (best) | 88.1% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 90.2% (best) | 46.3% | 58.6% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% (best) | 90.0% | 98.3% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 70.8% (best) | 19.1% | 20.0% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $10.00 | $0.58 (best) | $0.70 |
| Output | $50.00 | $1.44 (best) | $2.10 |
| Cached input | $0.25 | $0.116 | $0.07 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $20.00 | $0.795 (best) | $1.05 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Thinking Machines API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-fable-5-1 | thinkingmachines/Inkling-Small | mistral-large-4 |
| API providers | 37 (best) | 12 | 15 |
| Released | Sep 1, 2026 | Jul 30, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 2026 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Fable 5.1$200.00
- Inkling Small$8.68
- Mistral Large 4$11.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Fable 5.1, Inkling Small or Mistral Large 4?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Inkling Small 68/100, Mistral Large 4 67/100, Claude Fable 5.1 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Fable 5.1 for raw capability and Inkling Small on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Fable 5.1, Inkling Small or Mistral Large 4?
Inkling Small is cheaper at $0.58 input / $1.44 output per million tokens (official Thinking Machines API price). Mistral Large 4 costs $0.70 input / $2.10 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price); Claude Fable 5.1 costs $10.00 input / $50.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.795 per million tokens for Inkling Small versus $1.05 for Mistral Large 4 (1.3× as much) and $20.00 for Claude Fable 5.1 (25× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Fable 5.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Fable 5.1 166.4 (#6 of 165), Mistral Large 4 150.6 (#57 of 165) and Inkling Small 150.5 (#58 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (163.6–170.8 vs 147.4–153.5), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Fable 5.1 90.2%, Mistral Large 4 58.6%, Inkling Small 46.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Fable 5.1 100%, Mistral Large 4 98.3%, Inkling Small 90.0%; SimpleQA Verified — Claude Fable 5.1 70.8%, Mistral Large 4 20.0%, Inkling Small 19.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Fable 5.1, Inkling Small and Mistral Large 4 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Fable 5.1 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Inkling Small and Mistral Large 4 have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 1,000,000 for Claude Fable 5.1. Maximum output per response: Claude Fable 5.1 up to 128,000, Inkling Small up to 1,048,576, Mistral Large 4 up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Fable 5.1 accepts text, images and PDFs; Inkling Small accepts text, images and audio; Mistral Large 4 accepts text and images. Claude Fable 5.1 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Inkling Small publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Claude Fable 5.1 and Mistral Large 4 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mistral Large 4 is the newest, released Oct 6, 2026. Claude Fable 5.1 came out Sep 1, 2026; Inkling Small came out Jul 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Fable 5.1 Jun 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
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