Claude Opus 5 Max vs Muse Spark 1.3 Max: which is cheaper?

Claude Opus 5 Max leads the intelligence index 44.2 to 36.6. Muse Spark 1.3 Max costs 80% less on blended price. Benchmarks, sample bills, speed and a verdict.

Metric	Claude Opus 5 (Max)	Muse Spark 1.3 (Max)
Intelligence Index	44.2	36.6
Input price (per 1M tokens)	$5.00	$1.25
Output price (per 1M tokens)	$25.00	$4.25
Output speed (tokens/s)	50	140
Time to first token	62s	36s
Release date	2026-07-24	2026-09-02

Metric

Claude Opus 5 (Max)

Muse Spark 1.3 (Max)

Intelligence Index

44.2

36.6

Input price (per 1M tokens)

$5.00

$1.25

Output price (per 1M tokens)

$25.00

$4.25

Output speed (tokens/s)

140

Time to first token

62s

36s

Release date

2026-07-24

2026-09-02

This comparison puts Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 (Max) next to Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 (Max). The sharpest difference is price: Muse Spark 1.3 Max costs $4.25 per million output tokens, against $25.00 for Claude Opus 5 Max. No hands-on testing went into this write-up; it summarises the recorded benchmark, price and speed data for both models.

What they cost

The list prices are $5.00 in and $25.00 out for Claude Opus 5 Max, and $1.25 in and $4.25 out for Muse Spark 1.3 Max, per million tokens. That makes Muse Spark 1.3 Max's output 83% cheaper.

Take 1 million input tokens and 200,000 output tokens: that comes to $10.00 on Claude Opus 5 Max and $2.10 on Muse Spark 1.3 Max. For a month of coding-assistant traffic at 30 million input and 3 million output tokens, Muse Spark 1.3 Max would come in 78% lower: $225 for Claude Opus 5 Max against $50.25 for Muse Spark 1.3 Max.

Overall capability: 7.6 points apart

The catalogue puts Claude Opus 5 Max at 44.2 and Muse Spark 1.3 Max at 36.6 on its intelligence index. A lead of this size is hard to dismiss as noise.

Among 109 active scored models, Claude Opus 5 Max sits 26th and Muse Spark 1.3 Max 36th.

Specialist coding and math indexes are missing for both, so treat the overall score as the only capability signal here.

Value for money

Dividing the blended price by the intelligence index gives a rough cost per point: $0.23 for Claude Opus 5 Max and $0.055 for Muse Spark 1.3 Max, per million tokens. So Claude Opus 5 Max buys its higher score at a premium, while Muse Spark 1.3 Max is the value pick, paying 76% less per point.

Waiting time

Once a response is under way, Claude Opus 5 Max produces roughly 50 tokens per second against 140 tokens per second for Muse Spark 1.3 Max. On long outputs, that is a real advantage for Muse Spark 1.3 Max. Before any text appears, Claude Opus 5 Max takes 62 seconds and Muse Spark 1.3 Max 36 seconds. Claude Opus 5 Max waits 1.7 times as long before its first token. A first-token wait of that length suits background work better than live conversation.

Put together, a 400-token answer would take about 70 seconds from Claude Opus 5 Max and 39 seconds from Muse Spark 1.3 Max, counting the first-token wait.

Which is newer

Claude Opus 5 Max came first, on July 24, 2026; Muse Spark 1.3 Max followed on September 2, 2026. They are effectively contemporaries.

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Opus 5 Max better than Muse Spark 1.3 Max?

It depends on what you need: Claude Opus 5 Max scores higher on the intelligence index, 44.2 to 36.6; Muse Spark 1.3 Max is 80% cheaper on blended price; and Muse Spark 1.3 Max streams output 2.8 times as fast.

Was this comparison tested by hand?

The figures are the recorded benchmark, price and speed data in Franklin AI's model catalogue. This page is written from that data automatically; neither model was tested by hand for it.

How much do Claude Opus 5 Max and Muse Spark 1.3 Max cost?

Muse Spark 1.3 Max is cheaper on a blended basis. Claude Opus 5 Max lists $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 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 $10.00 against $2.10.

Who makes Claude Opus 5 Max and Muse Spark 1.3 Max?

Claude Opus 5 Max is made by Anthropic and Muse Spark 1.3 Max by Meta. Claude Opus 5 Max was released on July 24, 2026 and Muse Spark 1.3 Max on September 2, 2026.

Does Claude Opus 5 Max respond faster than Muse Spark 1.3 Max?

Muse Spark 1.3 Max generates output faster, at 140 tokens per second against 50 tokens per second. Muse Spark 1.3 Max reaches its first token sooner (36 seconds against 62 seconds).

Final whistle

The verdict: Muse Spark 1.3 Max is the stronger all-round pick on this data, while Claude Opus 5 Max makes sense in narrower cases. Pick Claude Opus 5 Max if you need the higher overall score (44.2 against 36.6). Pick Muse Spark 1.3 Max if cost matters ($4.25 against $25.00 per million output tokens) and long outputs need to finish quickly.

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 (Max) and Muse Spark 1.3 (Max) pages. The AI Benchmark methodology explains how that data is collected and shown.