Apertus 8B vs Ministral 3 3B vs Seed 2.0 Mini
Seed 2.0 Mini comes out ahead, 80 to 74 and 56 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Swiss AI
Apertus 8B
56/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.20
- Context66K
Mistral AIMinistral 3 3B
74/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.10
- Context262K
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 2.0 Mini
80/100- ECI—
- Price$0.03 / $0.297
- Context256K
Seed 2.0 Mini is our pick
Seed 2.0 Mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 80/100 against Ministral 3 3B (74) and Apertus 8B (56). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceSeed 2.0 MiniSeed 2.0 Mini $0.097 · Ministral 3 3B $0.10 · Apertus 8B $0.125 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMinistral 3 3BMinistral 3 3B 262,144 · Seed 2.0 Mini 256,000 · Apertus 8B 65,536 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 2.0 MiniApertus 8B: Text · Ministral 3 3B: Text, Images · Seed 2.0 Mini: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingApertus 8B and Ministral 3 3BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0 and Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Apertus 8B | Ministral 3 3B | Seed 2.0 Mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 93 | 97 | 98 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 60 | 80 |
| Context window | 20% | 12 | 37 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 56/100 | 74/100 | 80/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Apertus 8BSwiss AI | Ministral 3 3BMistral AI | Seed 2.0 MiniByteDance Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 | $0.10 | $0.03 (best) |
| Output | $0.20 | $0.10 (best) | $0.297 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.0059 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.125 | $0.10 | $0.097 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Over 32K: $0.059 / $0.594 |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 1 providers | Official Volcengine Ark API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 65,536 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | OpenApache 2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | doubao-seed-2-0-mini-260428 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 8 (best) |
| Released | Sep 2, 2025 | Dec 2, 2025 | Feb 14, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 2025 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Apertus 8B$1.40
- Ministral 3 3B$1.20
- Seed 2.0 Mini$0.891
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Apertus 8B, Ministral 3 3B or Seed 2.0 Mini?
Seed 2.0 Mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 80/100 against Ministral 3 3B (74) and Apertus 8B (56). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Apertus 8B, Ministral 3 3B or Seed 2.0 Mini?
Seed 2.0 Mini is cheaper at $0.03 input / $0.297 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). Ministral 3 3B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Apertus 8B costs $0.10 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.097 per million tokens for Seed 2.0 Mini versus $0.10 for Ministral 3 3B (1× as much) and $0.125 for Apertus 8B (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Apertus 8B has not been scored yet, Ministral 3 3B has not been scored yet and Seed 2.0 Mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Apertus 8B, Ministral 3 3B and Seed 2.0 Mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Ministral 3 3B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 2.0 Mini and 65,536 for Apertus 8B. Maximum output per response: Apertus 8B up to 8,192, Ministral 3 3B up to 262,144, Seed 2.0 Mini up to 32,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Apertus 8B accepts text; Ministral 3 3B accepts text and images; Seed 2.0 Mini accepts text, images and video. Seed 2.0 Mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Apertus 8B and Ministral 3 3B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0 and Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Seed 2.0 Mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Seed 2.0 Mini is the newest, released Feb 14, 2026. Ministral 3 3B came out Dec 2, 2025; Apertus 8B came out Sep 2, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Apertus 8B Sep 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
