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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Haiku 3 vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mixtral 8x7B

Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 46 to 42 and 33 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 3.3× cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3

    Released Mar 13, 2024

    46/100
    • ECI118.4
    • Price$0.25 / $1.25
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct

  3. Mistral AI

    Mixtral 8x7B

    Released Dec 11, 2023

    33/100
    • ECI118.5
    • Price$0.70 / $0.70
    • Context32K
    Full specs Remove Mixtral 8x7B
01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 3 is our pick

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Mixtral 8x7B (33). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

  • CapabilityClaude Haiku 3Shared benchmarks: Claude Haiku 3 36.3% · Mixtral 8x7B 30.6% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 · Mixtral 8x7B $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Mixtral 8x7B 32,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Mixtral 8x7B: Text
  • Self-hostingMinistral 8B Instruct and Mixtral 8x7BPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 3Ministral 8B InstructMixtral 8x7B
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%362731
Price25%648957
Inputs & features15%602525
Context window10%32240
Overall100%46/10042/10033/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Haiku 3 vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mixtral 8x7B specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 3AnthropicMinistral 8B InstructMistral AIMixtral 8x7BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)118.4—118.5 (best)
ECI rank#143 of 148—#142 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions36.3% (best)27.2%30.6%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.8%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.25$0.15 (best)$0.70
Output$1.25$0.15 (best)$0.70
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.50$0.15 (best)$0.70
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens32,000 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens8,192 tokens32,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model ID——open-mixtral-8x7b
API providers2 (best)11
ReleasedMar 13, 2024Oct 16, 2024Dec 11, 2023
Knowledge cutoffAug 31, 2023—Jan 2024
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.

  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Mixtral 8x7B$8.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 3, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mixtral 8x7B?

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Mixtral 8x7B (33). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 3, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mixtral 8x7B?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Claude Haiku 3 costs $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Mixtral 8x7B costs $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.50 for Claude Haiku 3 (3.3× as much) and $0.70 for Mixtral 8x7B (4.7× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Mixtral 8x7B 30.6% and Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Mixtral 8x7B 30.6%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 3, Ministral 8B Instruct and Mixtral 8x7B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 3 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?

Claude Haiku 3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Ministral 8B Instruct and 32,000 for Mixtral 8x7B. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Mixtral 8x7B up to 32,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Mixtral 8x7B accepts text. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Ministral 8B Instruct and Mixtral 8x7B publishes its weights (Mistral Research License) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Ministral 8B Instruct is the newest, released Oct 16, 2024. Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024; Mixtral 8x7B came out Dec 11, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 2023, Mixtral 8x7B Jan 2024.

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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