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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 vs Ministral 8B Instruct

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

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI116.6
    • Price$0.152 / $0.167
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
  2. 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

  3. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct
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 Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. 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% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 8B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructClaude Haiku 3Ministral 8B Instruct
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%273627
Price25%886489
Inputs & features15%256025
Context window10%243224
Overall100%42/10046/10042/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 vs Ministral 8B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaClaude Haiku 3AnthropicMinistral 8B InstructMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.6118.4 (best)—
ECI rank#145 of 148#143 of 148 (best)—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0%36.3% (best)27.2%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%1.8% (best)—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.152$0.25$0.15 (best)
Output$0.167$1.25$0.15 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.156$0.50$0.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 2 providersMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens200,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens4,096 tokens8,192 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpenMistral Research License
API model ID———
API providers9 (best)21
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Mar 13, 2024Oct 16, 2024
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Aug 31, 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.

  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 or Ministral 8B Instruct?

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. 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, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 or Ministral 8B Instruct?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 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); Claude Haiku 3 costs $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× as much) and $0.50 for Claude Haiku 3 (3.3× 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%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 and Ministral 8B Instruct 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 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 8B Instruct 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. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 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

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