Claude Opus 4.6 vs Mixtral 8x7B
Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and Mixtral 8x7B (2023) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and MistralAI. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window, while Mixtral 8x7B ships a 32k-token context window. On Google-Proof Q&A, Claude Opus 4.6 leads by 36.5 pts. On pricing, Mixtral 8x7B costs $0.15/1M input tokens versus $5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Mixtral 8x7B is ~3233% cheaper at $0.15/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Opus 4.6 | Mixtral 8x7B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Coding and Classification |
| Context window | 1m | 32k |
| Cheapest output | $25/1M tokens | $0.45/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 18 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | Google-Proof Q&A leader | 3 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Opus 4.6 holds a shared-benchmark lead on Google-Proof Q&A, ahead by 36.5 points.
- Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Claude Opus 4.6 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Mixtral 8x7B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.45/1M tokens.
- Mixtral 8x7B has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags Mixtral 8x7B for Coding and Classification.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Claude Opus 4.6
$10,250
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Anthropic
Mixtral 8x7B
$233
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Mistral AI Studio
Estimated monthly gap: $10,018. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, and Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Mixtral 8x7B is $24.55/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, and Microsoft Foundry; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Opus 4.6 is $24.55/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Opus 4.6 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-05 | 2023-12-11 |
| Context window | 1m | 32k |
| Parameters | — | 8x7B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Mixture of Experts |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open source |
| Weights | Not released | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | 2023-12 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Opus 4.6 | Mixtral 8x7B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $5/1M tokens | $0.15/1M tokens |
| Output price | $25/1M tokens | $0.45/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Opus 4.6 | Mixtral 8x7B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | No |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Mixtral 8x7B |
|---|---|---|
| Google-Proof Q&A | 91.3 | 54.8 |
| HumanEval | 95.0 | 80.5 |
| Massive Multitask Language Understanding | 91.1 | 80.2 |
Continue comparing
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- Claude Opus 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs GLM-5.1
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Hunyuan Hy3 Preview
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Composer 2.5
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3.6-27B
Popular comparisons for Claude Opus 4.6
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.