Muse Spark is Meta's best model for coding — it scores 89/100 vs 58/100 for Llama 4 Maverick, at $1.25/1M input tokens. Across all providers, Claude Fable 5 still leads coding at 100/100 — worth considering if you're not committed to Meta.
The shortest way to see the safest default, the lower-cost option, and the specialist pick before you read deeper.
Muse Spark is the safest overall answer here when you want the strongest default instead of the lowest list price.
Meta: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is the lower-cost option to start with when you still need useful output at scale.
Llama 4 Maverick is the better pick when response speed matters more than maximum reasoning depth.
Muse Spark leads Meta's lineup for coding at 89/100 ($1.25/1M input, 1.048576M context).
Muse Spark is the value pick at $1.25/1M input with a coding score of 89/100.
Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic) is the overall coding leader at 100/100 if provider choice is open.
Choose Muse Spark when coding quality is the priority and you're staying on Meta.
Choose Muse Spark when token volume matters more than peak quality.
Teams open to other providers should also evaluate Claude Fable 5 before committing.
Switch the scoring lens to see whether the top answer changes when you care more about cost, speed, or long-document work.
Meta / Balanced / Aug 6, 2026
Best-value multimodal agentic model — GPT-5.5-tier smarts, video/audio/PDF in.
Ranks models by the broadest mix of coding, writing, research, and long-context usefulness.
You need frontier-ceiling reasoning or a mature developer ecosystem — Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 lead both.
The fastest way to see where the recommendation shifts when your priority changes.
Best-value multimodal agentic model — GPT-5.5-tier smarts, video/audio/PDF in.
Best flexible option for teams that need open-weight portability.
Best open-weight long-context option for self-hosted pipelines.
Muse Spark 1.2 scores 80% on Terminal-Bench 2.1 and ranks #5 overall on GDPval-AA v2 (Elo 1631), ahead of Claude Opus 4.8 on agentic tasks
Natively multimodal in: text, image, video, audio, and PDF — broader input support than most rivals
$1.25/$4.25 per 1M tokens — among the most cost-efficient models at its intelligence level (~$0.40/task)
Trails the frontier on raw intelligence: AA Intelligence Index 54 vs Claude Opus 5 (61) and GPT-5.6 Sol (59)
Weak on some hard agentic evals (27% tau3-Banking) and the API ecosystem is young — public API only since July 2026
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Muse Spark — it scores 89/100 on coding in this directory, ahead of Llama 4 Maverick at 58/100. Best-value multimodal agentic model — GPT-5.5-tier smarts, video/audio/PDF in.
Not overall. Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic) leads the directory for coding at 100/100 vs Muse Spark's 89/100. Muse Spark is the best pick if you're staying within Meta's ecosystem.
Muse Spark at $1.25/1M input tokens (coding score: 89/100). Use it for volume work and reserve Muse Spark for the tasks where quality matters most.
$1.25/1M input tokens and $4.25/1M output tokens via the API, or through Meta AI (free) at $0/mo for chat use. Context window: 1.048576M tokens.