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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemma 3 27B IT vs Ministral 3B vs Mistral Small 3.2

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemma 3 27B IT 60, Mistral Small 3.2 60, Ministral 3B 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemma 3 27B IT

    Released Mar 12, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI130.0
    • Price$0.08 / $0.20
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 3 27B IT

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 3B

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemma 3 27B IT 60/100, Mistral Small 3.2 60/100, Ministral 3B 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Small 3.2 for raw capability, Ministral 3B on price and Gemma 3 27B IT for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMistral Small 3.2Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 · Gemma 3 27B IT 130.0 · Ministral 3B 118.1
  • Lowest priceMinistral 3BMinistral 3B $0.10 · Gemma 3 27B IT $0.11 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemma 3 27B ITGemma 3 27B IT 131,072 · Ministral 3B 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 3 27B IT and Mistral Small 3.2Gemma 3 27B IT: Text, Images · Ministral 3B: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 3 27B ITMinistral 3BMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%533855
Price25%959789
Inputs & features15%502550
Context window10%242424
Overall100%60/10049/10060/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemma 3 27B IT vs Ministral 3B vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 3 27B ITGoogleMinistral 3BMistral AIMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)130.0118.1131.7 (best)
ECI rank#125 of 148#144 of 148#123 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.7%25.3%49.1% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics22.5%—30.3% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.08 (best)$0.10$0.10
Output$0.20$0.10 (best)$0.30
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.11$0.10 (best)$0.15
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID——mistral-small-2506
API providers10 (best)16
ReleasedMar 12, 2025Oct 16, 2024Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Mar 2024Mar 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemma 3 27B IT$1.20
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 3 27B IT, Ministral 3B or Mistral Small 3.2?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemma 3 27B IT 60/100, Mistral Small 3.2 60/100, Ministral 3B 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mistral Small 3.2 for raw capability, Ministral 3B on price and Gemma 3 27B IT for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B IT, Ministral 3B or Mistral Small 3.2?

Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Gemma 3 27B IT costs $0.08 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers); Mistral Small 3.2 costs $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.10 per million tokens for Ministral 3B versus $0.11 for Gemma 3 27B IT (1.1× as much) and $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Mistral Small 3.2 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148), Gemma 3 27B IT 130.0 (#125 of 148) and Ministral 3B 118.1 (#144 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (126.6–133.9 vs 124.1–132.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%, Gemma 3 27B IT 47.7%, Ministral 3B 25.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 27B IT, Ministral 3B and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Small 3.2 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 27B IT has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Ministral 3B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 27B IT up to 131,072, Ministral 3B up to 8,192, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 3 27B IT accepts text and images; Ministral 3B accepts text; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images. Gemma 3 27B IT handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Gemma 3 27B IT came out Mar 12, 2025; Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 27B IT Aug 2024, Ministral 3B Mar 2024, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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