DeepSeek OCR 2 vs Ministral 3 3B vs Seed 2.0 Mini
Seed 2.0 Mini comes out ahead, 80 to 74 and 32 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
DeepSeekDeepSeek OCR 2
32/100- ECI—
- Price$0.89 / $1.47
- Context8K
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 DeepSeek OCR 2 (32). 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 · DeepSeek OCR 2 $1.03 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMinistral 3 3BMinistral 3 3B 262,144 · Seed 2.0 Mini 256,000 · DeepSeek OCR 2 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 2.0 MiniDeepSeek OCR 2: Text, Images · Ministral 3 3B: Text, Images · Seed 2.0 Mini: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingDeepSeek OCR 2 and Ministral 3 3BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek OCR 2 | Ministral 3 3B | Seed 2.0 Mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 49 | 97 | 98 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 60 | 80 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 37 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 32/100 | 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 | DeepSeek OCR 2DeepSeek | Ministral 3 3BMistral AI | Seed 2.0 MiniByteDance Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.89 | $0.10 | $0.03 (best) |
| Output | $1.47 | $0.10 (best) | $0.297 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.0059 |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.03 | $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 | 8,192 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 | Yes | 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 | No | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | OpenApache 2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | doubao-seed-2-0-mini-260428 |
| API providers | 2 | 1 | 8 (best) |
| Released | Jan 27, 2026 | Dec 2, 2025 | Feb 14, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- DeepSeek OCR 2$11.83
- Ministral 3 3B$1.20
- Seed 2.0 Mini$0.891
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek OCR 2, 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 DeepSeek OCR 2 (32). 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, DeepSeek OCR 2, 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); DeepSeek OCR 2 costs $0.89 input / $1.47 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 $1.03 for DeepSeek OCR 2 (11× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. DeepSeek OCR 2 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 DeepSeek OCR 2, 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. Note that DeepSeek OCR 2 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
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 8,192 for DeepSeek OCR 2. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek OCR 2 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?
DeepSeek OCR 2 accepts text and images; 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?
DeepSeek OCR 2 and Ministral 3 3B publishes its weights (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. DeepSeek OCR 2 came out Jan 27, 2026; Ministral 3 3B came out Dec 2, 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.
