Fugu Ultra vs Fugu Mini

What I tested — same prompt, two models

I run the same fixed prompt set through every new model the day it drops — same string, one shot, single HTML file out — and I score the result 0–10 on whether it ran, how close it hit the brief, and how good it looked. Below is what came out when I gave the exact same prompts to Fugu Ultra and Fugu Mini, side by side, on 4 shared tasks inside the Agent Operating System.

Both models were given identical prompts inside the Agent Operating System — no help, no iteration, no "best of N" tricks. I run each prompt once, save the HTML file the model produces, and score it 0–10 on whether it ran, how close it hit the brief, and how good it looked. The scoring is mine. The verdicts below are pulled from my source comparison guides at agentos.guide where I publish every score and the reasoning behind it.

Fugu Ultra · Dispatched from Agent OS as the panel-ensemble alternative to OpenRouter Fusion. Bench scored by Claude judge against the same 42 prompts as every other model.

Fugu Mini · Dispatched from Agent OS as the fast Sakana lane. Bench scored by Claude judge against the same 42 prompts.

Where Fugu Ultra beat Fugu Mini

The tasks where I gave Fugu Ultra a higher 0–10 score on the same prompt — with the actual commentary from my source guides.

Strengths & weaknesses I logged

Pricing & context — the spec sheet

The verdict — which should you pick?

Across 1 scored shared tasks, Fugu Ultra averaged 3.50/10, beating Fugu Mini's 3.00/10 by 0.50 points. Pick Fugu Ultra when the build has to ship on the first prompt and you can afford the trade-offs in the comparison below.

If you only run one of these inside your stack, the head-to-head average above is the call. If you can run both, my honest play is to wire Fugu Ultra and Fugu Mini both into the Agent Operating System and dispatch each from the kanban by task type — teams that want fusion-class quality but need a different vendor risk profile → Fugu Ultra, agent loops where latency matters more than panel consensus → Fugu Mini. That's the same setup I run for the 3,600+ founders inside the AI Profit Boardroom.

FAQ — Fugu Ultra vs Fugu Mini

Which is better, Fugu Ultra or Fugu Mini?

On Goldie Bench, Fugu Ultra averages 3.50/10 across the shared tasks, with 3 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze overall. Fugu Mini averages 3.00/10, with 0 gold, 0 silver, 0 bronze. Fugu Ultra wins the head-to-head 1–0.

How much does Fugu Ultra cost vs Fugu Mini?

Fugu Ultra: Sakana's multi-agent orchestration: a single API call internally dispatches to multiple frontier models and synthesises the answer. Subscription plans run $20-$200/mo (Standard / Pro / Max); PAYG is $5/M input + $30/M output for Fugu Ultra. Direct competitor to OpenRouter Fusion's panel approach. Fugu Mini: The non-Ultra `fugu` model on Sakana's API. Sakana describes it as 'Fast mini model optimized for low latency yet high quality responses.' Crucially: zero orchestration tokens per call (vs Ultra's panel of thousands). Returns in ~3 min instead of 6-15 min and doesn't time out on heavy prompts.

What's the context window for Fugu Ultra vs Fugu Mini?

Fugu Ultra has a 272,000 tokens with the standard rate. Calls exceeding 272K context are billed at the higher 'long-context' rates. context window. Fugu Mini has a Single-model variant of Sakana's Fugu — no panel orchestration. Same API endpoint, much faster per call. context window.

When should I pick Fugu Ultra over Fugu Mini?

Pick Fugu Ultra for: Teams that want Fusion-class quality but need a different vendor risk profile; Operators avoiding export-controlled providers (Sakana emphasises this in their pitch); Deep-research workflows where ensemble verdicts beat single-model answers. The trade-off is the weaknesses we logged on the bench: Panel orchestration adds latency — even a 'pong' burns ~2k orchestration tokens; Newer than Fusion; less community calibration on long-tail prompts.

When should I pick Fugu Mini over Fugu Ultra?

Pick Fugu Mini for: Agent loops where latency matters more than panel consensus; Quick first-drafts you'll refine downstream; Filling out a bench when Ultra is timing out. The trade-off is the weaknesses we logged on the bench: Single model only — no ensemble verdict; Newer than Ultra — less calibration / verification.

How does Goldie Bench score Fugu Ultra vs Fugu Mini?

Every demo on this page was built by Julian Goldie inside the Agent Operating System — same fixed prompt for both models, one shot, single HTML file out. Each result gets a 0–10 score on whether it ran, how close it hit the brief, and how good it looked. The highest score on each task gets gold; second gets silver; third gets bronze. See methodology for full provenance.

Related comparisons

Other head-to-heads using the same scoring system:

Full model pages: Fugu Ultra · Fugu Mini · back to the leaderboard