Which is better, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.2?

On quality, neither model leads clearly across the 8 measures both have. 4 measures are too close to call. Muse Spark 1.2 costs about 80% less than Claude Opus 4.8 on a blended price of $2.00 against $10.00 per million tokens. Which one is better for you depends on your task and budget, so test both on your own work.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.2?

Muse Spark 1.2 is cheaper on blended price: $10.00 per million tokens for Claude Opus 4.8 against $2.00 for Muse Spark 1.2. For 100 chats of about 1,000 tokens in and 500 tokens back, that is about $1.75 for Claude Opus 4.8 and $0.34 for Muse Spark 1.2.

Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.2?

On Arena coding rating they are too close to call (1533 and 1541).

AI Rankings

Claude Opus 4.8 vs Muse Spark 1.2: Scores, Price and Which to Choose

Side by side on every measure both models share: overall score, human votes, tests, price and context window. Close results are called too close to call.

Data updated 26 Oct 2026

Read the model pages for the full picture: Claude Opus 4.8 and Muse Spark 1.2.

Side by side

A check mark shows the better side on each measure. Scores that are too close to call have no winner.

Claude Opus 4.8 compared with Muse Spark 1.2Claude Opus 4.8 against Muse Spark 1.2 on 10 measures. Claude Opus 4.8 is better on 2, Muse Spark 1.2 on 3, 5 are too close to call, 0 have no data for one side.

Claude Opus 4.8
Muse Spark 1.2

Epoch Capabilities IndexToo close to call
Combined score over many tests. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Opus 4.8:
159.0
Muse Spark 1.2:
155.1
Arena text ratingToo close to call
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Opus 4.8:
1482
Muse Spark 1.2:
1491
Arena coding ratingToo close to call
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Opus 4.8:
1533
Muse Spark 1.2:
1541
Arena web development ratingClaude Opus 4.8 leads
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Opus 4.8:
Better: 1556
Muse Spark 1.2:
1533
Arena vision ratingToo close to call
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Opus 4.8:
1286
Muse Spark 1.2:
1293
DeepSWEClaude Opus 4.8 leads
Software engineering tasks scored as the share solved on the first try (pass@1), run with the open mini-SWE-agent setup.
Claude Opus 4.8:
Better: 59.0%
Muse Spark 1.2:
54.9%
SimpleBenchMuse Spark 1.2 leads
Everyday common-sense and trick questions that most people answer correctly but AI models often get wrong.
Claude Opus 4.8:
64.8%
Muse Spark 1.2:
Better: 74.5%
SimpleQA VerifiedMuse Spark 1.2 leads
Short factual questions that each have one correct answer.
Claude Opus 4.8:
53.0%
Muse Spark 1.2:
Better: 60.3%
Blended price per million tokensMuse Spark 1.2 costs less
Blended price: lower is better.
Claude Opus 4.8:
$10.00
Muse Spark 1.2:
Better: $2.00
Context windowToo close to call
How much text it can read at once.
Claude Opus 4.8:
1M tokens
Muse Spark 1.2:
1M tokens

Data updated 26 Oct 2026. Only measures that both models have are shown.

The numbers

Claude Opus 4.8 against Muse Spark 1.2, measure by measure. A check mark shows the better side.
Measure	Claude Opus 4.8	Muse Spark 1.2
Epoch Capabilities IndexToo close to call	159.0	155.1
Arena text ratingToo close to call	1482	1491
Arena coding ratingToo close to call	1533	1541
Arena web development rating	1556	1533
Arena vision ratingToo close to call	1286	1293
DeepSWE	59.0%	54.9%
SimpleBench	64.8%	74.5%
SimpleQA Verified	53.0%	60.3%
Blended price per million tokens	$10.00	$2.00
Context windowToo close to call	1M tokens	1M tokens

What it costs in everyday terms

Estimate for 100 chats of about 1,000 tokens in and 500 tokens back, from list prices. Your bill depends on how you use it.

100 chats with Claude Opus 4.8: $1.75; Blended price $10.00 per million tokens.
100 chats with Muse Spark 1.2: $0.34; Blended price $2.00 per million tokens.

Who should pick which

Pick Claude Opus 4.8 if these matter most

Arena web development rating: 1556 against 1533
DeepSWE: 59.0% against 54.9%

Pick Muse Spark 1.2 if these matter most

SimpleBench: 74.5% against 64.8%
SimpleQA Verified: 60.3% against 53.0%
Blended price per million tokens: $2.00 against $10.00

Too close to call: Epoch Capabilities Index, Arena text rating, Arena coding rating, Arena vision rating, Context window.

Scores come from tests and votes, not from your own work. Try both on a task you care about before you commit.

Go deeper

Claude Opus 4.8: full page

Muse Spark 1.2: full page

Questions about this comparison

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.2?: On quality, neither model leads clearly across the 8 measures both have. 4 measures are too close to call. Muse Spark 1.2 costs about 80% less than Claude Opus 4.8 on a blended price of $2.00 against $10.00 per million tokens. Which one is better for you depends on your task and budget, so test both on your own work.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.2?: Muse Spark 1.2 is cheaper on blended price: $10.00 per million tokens for Claude Opus 4.8 against $2.00 for Muse Spark 1.2. For 100 chats of about 1,000 tokens in and 500 tokens back, that is about $1.75 for Claude Opus 4.8 and $0.34 for Muse Spark 1.2.
Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.8 or Muse Spark 1.2?: On Arena coding rating they are too close to call (1533 and 1541).

Where this data comes from

Epoch AI: Benchmark data: Epoch AI, 'Capabilities & benchmarking', epoch.ai/benchmarks (CC BY 4.0). We match models across sources, rank them and show them in charts. Scores are not changed. Epoch AI does not endorse this site.
Arena (formerly LMArena): Human-preference ratings: Arena (arena.ai) leaderboard dataset, CC BY 4.0. We keep the latest published ratings, match them to models from other sources and rank them. Ratings are not changed. Arena does not endorse this site.
LiteLLM model price list: Prices and context windows: LiteLLM model price list (github.com/BerriAI/litellm, MIT licence). We use the model maker's own price entry when there is one. Prices change often, so always confirm on the maker's site before you buy.

Newest data on this page: 26 Oct 2026. Prices are list prices and change often, so confirm on the maker's site before you buy. Sponsors never change a score or an order. How we calculate this · Report a mistake