Claude Opus 5.5 Max vs Muse Spark 1.3 Max compared

Claude Opus 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 59.1 to 36.6. Muse Spark 1.3 Max costs 75% less on blended price. See token costs, speed and which to pick.

Metric	Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)	Muse Spark 1.3 (Max)
Intelligence Index	59.1	36.6
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$4.00	$1.25
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$20.00	$4.25
Output speed (tokens/s)	95	140
Time to first token	10.8 min	36s
Release date	2026-09-22	2026-09-02

Metric

Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)

Muse Spark 1.3 (Max)

Intelligence Index

59.1

36.6

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$4.00

$1.25

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$20.00

$4.25

Output speed (tokens/s)

140

Time to first token

10.8 min

36s

Release date

2026-09-22

2026-09-02

Comparing Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) with Muse Spark 1.3 (Max) is really a question of how much capability you are willing to give up, and what you get back for it. Claude Opus 5.5 Max leads the intelligence index 59.1 to 36.6, a gap of 22.5 points. Everything below is read from the benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's catalogue; nothing here comes from a hands-on test.

How the intelligence index compares

Claude Opus 5.5 Max records 59.1 on the intelligence index and Muse Spark 1.3 Max records 36.6. The difference is large enough that the lower-scoring model has to win on cost or speed to stay in the running. Put another way, Muse Spark 1.3 Max would need 61% more on this index to draw level.

Across the 109 active models with an intelligence score in the catalogue, Claude Opus 5.5 Max ranks 2nd and Muse Spark 1.3 Max ranks 36th.

The catalogue does not yet split either model's score into coding and math indexes.

Release timing

Muse Spark 1.3 Max came first, on September 2, 2026; Claude Opus 5.5 Max followed on September 22, 2026. They are effectively contemporaries.

Throughput and time to first token

Once a response is under way, Claude Opus 5.5 Max produces roughly 95 tokens per second against 140 tokens per second for Muse Spark 1.3 Max. Muse Spark 1.3 Max is ahead by 47% on throughput. Time to first token is 10.8 minutes for Claude Opus 5.5 Max and 36 seconds for Muse Spark 1.3 Max. Muse Spark 1.3 Max gets to its first token 18 times as fast. Waits that long are felt on every chat-style request, though they matter less for batch jobs.

For a 400-token response, first token plus generation comes to roughly 10.9 minutes on Claude Opus 5.5 Max and 39 seconds on Muse Spark 1.3 Max.

Price per token

The list prices are $4.00 in and $20.00 out for Claude Opus 5.5 Max, and $1.25 in and $4.25 out for Muse Spark 1.3 Max, per million tokens. Claude Opus 5.5 Max costs 4.7 times as much per output token.

For a sample workload of 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens, Claude Opus 5.5 Max would cost $8.00 and Muse Spark 1.3 Max $2.10, a difference of $5.90. A bigger example, extracting fields from 20,000 pages of 1,500 tokens into 150-token records, costs $180 on Claude Opus 5.5 Max and $50.25 on Muse Spark 1.3 Max: a gap of $130. Blended at three input tokens per output token, the effective rates are $8.00 for Claude Opus 5.5 Max and $2.00 for Muse Spark 1.3 Max.

Cost per point of intelligence

Per point of intelligence index, Claude Opus 5.5 Max costs $0.14 of blended price per million tokens and Muse Spark 1.3 Max $0.055. So Claude Opus 5.5 Max buys its higher score at a premium, while Muse Spark 1.3 Max is the value pick, paying 60% less per point.

FAQ

Is Muse Spark 1.3 Max better than Claude Opus 5.5 Max?

Not across the board: Claude Opus 5.5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 59.1 to 36.6; Muse Spark 1.3 Max is 75% cheaper on blended price; and Muse Spark 1.3 Max streams output 1.5 times as fast.

Which is newer, Claude Opus 5.5 Max or Muse Spark 1.3 Max?

Claude Opus 5.5 Max is newer. It was released on September 22, 2026, 20 days after Muse Spark 1.3 Max (September 2, 2026).

Which model has lower latency?

Muse Spark 1.3 Max generates output faster, at 140 tokens per second against 95 tokens per second. Muse Spark 1.3 Max reaches its first token sooner (36 seconds against 10.8 minutes).

Who makes Claude Opus 5.5 Max and Muse Spark 1.3 Max?

Claude Opus 5.5 Max is made by Anthropic and Muse Spark 1.3 Max by Meta. Claude Opus 5.5 Max was released on September 22, 2026 and Muse Spark 1.3 Max on September 2, 2026.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5.5 Max or Muse Spark 1.3 Max?

Muse Spark 1.3 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Opus 5.5 Max lists $4.00 per million input tokens and $20.00 per million output tokens; Muse Spark 1.3 Max lists $1.25 and $4.25. For 1 million input and 200,000 output tokens that is $8.00 against $2.10.

Final whistle

Short answer: on balance the numbers favour Claude Opus 5.5 Max, though Muse Spark 1.3 Max keeps a case of its own. Pick Muse Spark 1.3 Max if cost matters ($4.25 against $20.00 per million output tokens) and users are waiting on the first word. Pick Claude Opus 5.5 Max if you need the higher overall score (59.1 against 36.6).

Where the numbers come from

The scores, speed and prices in this comparison come from independent third-party model evaluations that Franklin AI syncs each day, and the article was written from a snapshot of them. For the latest results, open the Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) and Muse Spark 1.3 (Max) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.