Muse Spark is Meta's best model for research — it scores 90/100 vs 78/100 for Llama 4 Scout, at $1.25/1M input tokens. Across all providers, Claude Fable 5 still leads research 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 Scout is the better pick when large documents, transcripts, or knowledge-heavy work lead the decision.
Llama 4 Scout leads Meta's lineup for research at 78/100 ($0.5/1M input, 512K context).
Llama 4 Scout is the value pick at $0.5/1M input with a research score of 78/100.
Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic) is the overall research leader at 100/100 if provider choice is open.
Choose Llama 4 Scout when research quality is the priority and you're staying on Meta.
Choose Llama 4 Scout 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 / Budget / Aug 7, 2026
Best open-weight long-context option for self-hosted pipelines.
Ranks models by the broadest mix of coding, writing, research, and long-context usefulness.
You want a hosted solution — Gemini 3.1 Flash gives more context for roughly the same cost.
The fastest way to see where the recommendation shifts when your priority changes.
Best open-weight long-context option for self-hosted pipelines.
Best flexible option for teams that need open-weight portability.
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 90/100 on research in this directory, ahead of Llama 4 Scout at 78/100. Best-value multimodal agentic model — GPT-5.5-tier smarts, video/audio/PDF in.
Not overall. Claude Fable 5 (Anthropic) leads the directory for research at 100/100 vs Muse Spark's 90/100. Muse Spark is the best pick if you're staying within Meta's ecosystem.
Llama 4 Scout at $0.5/1M input tokens (research score: 78/100). 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.