ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemma 3 4B IT vs Ministral 3B vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

Gemma 3 4B IT comes out ahead, 53 to 49 and 46 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemma 3 4B IT

    Released Mar 12, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI116.1
    • Price$0.05 / $0.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 3 4B 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. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    46/100
    • ECI116.6
    • Price$0.152 / $0.167
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
01 — Verdict

Gemma 3 4B IT is our pick

Gemma 3 4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Ministral 3B (49) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on price and inputs & features. Ministral 3B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityMinistral 3BCapabilities Index (ECI): Ministral 3B 118.1 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6 · Gemma 3 4B IT 116.1
  • Lowest priceGemma 3 4B ITGemma 3 4B IT $0.063 · Ministral 3B $0.10 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemma 3 4B ITGemma 3 4B IT 131,072 · Ministral 3B 128,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 3 4B ITGemma 3 4B IT: Text, Images · Ministral 3B: Text · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemma 3 4B ITMinistral 3BLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%353836
Price25%1009788
Inputs & features15%502525
Context window10%242424
Overall100%53/10049/10046/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Gemma 3 4B IT vs Ministral 3B vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationGemma 3 4B ITGoogleMinistral 3BMistral AILlama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.1118.1 (best)116.6
ECI rank#146 of 148#144 of 148 (best)#145 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions23.2%25.3%27.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics7.5% (best)—1.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.05 (best)$0.10$0.152
Output$0.10 (best)$0.10 (best)$0.167
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.063 (best)$0.10$0.156
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 7 providersMedian of 1 providersMedian of 9 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)8,192 tokens4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID———
API providers719 (best)
ReleasedMar 12, 2025Oct 16, 2024Jul 23, 2024
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Mar 2024Dec 2023
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 4B IT$0.70
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemma 3 4B IT, Ministral 3B or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Gemma 3 4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Ministral 3B (49) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on price and inputs & features. Ministral 3B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B IT, Ministral 3B or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?

Gemma 3 4B IT is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 7 API providers). Ministral 3B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.063 per million tokens for Gemma 3 4B IT versus $0.10 for Ministral 3B (1.6× as much) and $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (2.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Ministral 3B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Ministral 3B 118.1 (#144 of 148), Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6 (#145 of 148) and Gemma 3 4B IT 116.1 (#146 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (107.4–121.8 vs 106.3–121.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%, Ministral 3B 25.3%, Gemma 3 4B IT 23.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemma 3 4B IT, Ministral 3B and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Ministral 3B 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 4B IT has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Ministral 3B and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Gemma 3 4B IT up to 131,072, Ministral 3B up to 8,192, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemma 3 4B IT accepts text and images; Ministral 3B accepts text; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text. Gemma 3 4B 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?

Gemma 3 4B IT is the newest, released Mar 12, 2025. Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemma 3 4B IT Aug 2024, Ministral 3B Mar 2024, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023.

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

Related comparisons