Meta

Muse Spark

Provider

Meta

Status

available

Context

1,000,000 tok

SWE-bench

55%

Price

$1.25 / $4.25 /MTok

Muse Spark is the first model from Meta’s Meta Superintelligence Labs, launched on 8 April 2026 and spearheaded by chief AI officer Alexandr Wang. It is the clearest signal of Meta’s strategy reset: a proprietary, natively multimodal reasoning model that replaced the open Llama models as the engine behind Meta AI — a deliberate break from the open-weights approach Meta built its AI reputation on (CNBC).

Meta describes it as “small and fast by design,” and the efficiency claim is the headline: Meta says Muse Spark matches Llama 4 Maverick with over 10x less compute (Artificial Analysis). It is a capable first-generation frontier-adjacent model — independent evaluator Artificial Analysis scores it 52 on its Intelligence Index v4.0, 4th overall at release — that leads on health questions and vision, but sits below the very top of the field.

Verdict — updated 26 July 2026. Muse Spark is very much a live, evolving line — which is exactly why it spiked in coverage. On 9 July 2026 Meta shipped Muse Spark 1.1, an agentic upgrade (tool use, computer use, coding, a 1M-token context) and, more significantly, opened the Meta Model API in public preview — the first time Meta has charged for its own model, a decisive break from the open Llama era. Days earlier (7 July) it added Muse Image and a Muse Video preview. So Muse Spark remains Meta’s current AI-assistant engine — now paid-metered for developers and pushing into agentic and coding territory to chase Anthropic and OpenAI — capable and improving, though still below the very top of the independent leaderboards.

Quick specs

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What’s new in Muse Spark 1.1

Meta upgraded the line to Muse Spark 1.1 on 9 July 2026, and the release did two notable things.

It went agentic. Muse Spark 1.1 is built for agentic work — multi-step tool use, computer use and coding — with reported gains over the original across tool use, computer use, coding and multimodal understanding, a 1M-token context (up from ~262K) and multi-agent orchestration. In Meta AI that shows up as an assistant that “doesn’t just think, it acts”: it can make plans, connect to email and calendar, build slides and carry out tasks on your behalf (Meta). Meta framed it explicitly as an entry into the AI coding market, chasing Anthropic and OpenAI (CNBC).

It became Meta’s first paid model. Alongside 1.1, Meta opened the Meta Model API in public preview — the first time outside developers can build on a Muse model, and the first time Meta has charged for its own model, at roughly $1.25 in / $4.25 out per million tokens (AI Weekly). Muse Spark 1.1 is closed, hosted and metered per token — a structural reversal of the open-weights Llama strategy Meta built its AI reputation on.

The wider Muse family. Two days earlier, on 7 July 2026, Meta Superintelligence Labs shipped its first media-generation models: Muse Image (now in Meta AI, generating and blending images with reasoning) and a Muse Video preview (Meta). Together with 1.1, this burst of releases is what drove the model’s mid-2026 coverage.

What Muse Spark is

Muse Spark is the first in a planned “Muse” family from Meta Superintelligence Labs, the organisation Mark Zuckerberg built around Alexandr Wang after a $14 billion-plus deal for a stake in Scale AI (CNBC). It is natively multimodal — accepting text, image and speech input — with tool use, visual chain-of-thought and an Instant / Thinking mode split for quick answers versus deeper reasoning (Meta).

The strategically important fact is that it is proprietary. Where Llama defined Meta’s open-weights era, Muse Spark keeps its weights closed (Meta says it “hopes to open-source future versions”), prioritising integration into Meta’s own products and ecosystem (Artificial Analysis). See the Meta provider page for the wider pivot.

Benchmark performance

Vendor- and Artificial-Analysis-reported figures for the original April model; treat as a ceiling pending broader independent testing. Muse Spark 1.1 (9 July 2026) targets agentic, coding and multimodal gains over these numbers, but independent 1.1 benchmarks had not landed at the time of writing.

Muse Spark’s profile is “strong generalist, standout on health and vision, efficient” rather than frontier-leading (Artificial Analysis). Its Contemplating mode orchestrates multiple agents reasoning in parallel, letting it compete with the extreme-reasoning modes of frontier models (≈58% on Humanity’s Last Exam). On our best AI models ranking it sits in the Strong tier.

Capabilities

Muse Spark handles text, image and speech input with text output, a 1M-token context window (up from ~262K in the original April model), tool use, visual chain-of-thought and multi-agent orchestration (the Contemplating mode, and 1.1’s agentic tool/computer use). The efficiency story is central: Meta claims it reaches Llama 4 Maverick-level capability with more than ten times less compute (Artificial Analysis), consistent with the “small and fast by design” framing.

Access and pricing

Muse Spark is free for general users on meta.ai and the Meta AI app, where it powers the assistant across Meta’s products. For developers, the picture changed with 1.1: the Meta Model API entered public preview on 9 July 2026 at roughly $1.25 in / $4.25 out per million tokens — Meta’s first metered, closed, hosted model access (AI Weekly). It remains proprietary with no open-weights release — a notable contrast with Llama 4, though Meta says it hopes to open-source future versions.

How Muse Spark compares

• vs the frontier — Muse Spark trails Claude Opus 4.8, GPT-5.5 and Gemini 3.1 Pro on the aggregate Intelligence Index, but leads them on HealthBench and is near the top on vision.
• vs Llama 4 — Muse Spark replaced Llama as the Meta AI engine and matches Llama 4 Maverick’s capability at a fraction of the compute, but it is closed where Llama is open.

Known limitations

Below the frontier leaders on overall capability, and independent benchmarks for 1.1 are still pending. Proprietary and now metered — no open weights (a reversal of Meta’s Llama strategy and a disappointment to the open-source community), and developer access via the Meta Model API is paid per token rather than free or open. And the wider Meta AI privacy posture (ad personalisation from chats) applies — see Meta AI.

FAQ

What is Muse Spark?

Muse Spark is the first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, launched 8 April 2026. It is a proprietary, natively multimodal reasoning model that replaced Llama as the engine behind Meta AI, and Meta’s first major step away from open weights.

How good is Muse Spark?

Capable but not frontier-leading. Artificial Analysis scores it 52 on its Intelligence Index (4th overall at release), behind Gemini 3.1 Pro, GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 4.6 — but it leads on HealthBench Hard and is among the best vision models, and is notably compute-efficient.

Is Muse Spark open source?

No. Unlike Llama, Muse Spark is proprietary — Meta has not released the weights, though it says it hopes to open-source future versions. It is free to use in Meta’s apps and, since Muse Spark 1.1, available to developers through the public-preview Meta Model API.

How much does Muse Spark cost?

It is free for consumers in the Meta AI app and at meta.ai. For developers, Muse Spark 1.1 is available through the Meta Model API (public preview since 9 July 2026) at roughly $1.25 in / $4.25 out per million tokens — Meta’s first metered model pricing.

What is Muse Spark 1.1?

Muse Spark 1.1, released 9 July 2026, is the current version of the model. It’s an agentic upgrade — stronger tool use, computer use, coding and multimodal understanding, with a 1M-token context and multi-agent orchestration — and it launched alongside the Meta Model API, the first time Meta has charged developers for its own model. In Meta AI it powers an assistant that can plan, connect to email and calendar, build slides and complete multi-step tasks.

Last verified 26 July 2026. Benchmark figures are Meta- and Artificial-Analysis-reported from the April 2026 launch; Muse Spark 1.1 (9 July 2026) improves on them but independent 1.1 numbers are pending. Confirm against Meta’s official pages before relying on specific numbers.