Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Llama-3.2-3B vs Ministral 8B Instruct
Too close to call on our weighted score (Ministral 8B Instruct 57, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 56, Llama-3.2-3B 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
56/100- ECI116.6
- Price$0.152 / $0.167
- Context128K
- Meta
Llama-3.2-3B
49/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.335
- Context131K
Mistral AIMinistral 8B Instruct
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context131K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Ministral 8B Instruct 57/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 56/100, Llama-3.2-3B 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Ministral 8B Instruct on price. 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 priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Llama-3.2-3B $0.159 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama-3.2-3B and Ministral 8B InstructLlama-3.2-3B 131,072 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Llama-3.2-3B: Text · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Llama-3.2-3B | Ministral 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 88 | 88 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 0 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 56/100 | 49/100 | 57/100 |
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 | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta | Llama-3.2-3BMeta | Ministral 8B InstructMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 116.6 | — | — |
| ECI rank | #145 of 148 | — | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 27.0% | — | 27.2% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 1.7% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.152 | $0.10 (best) | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.167 | $0.335 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.156 | $0.159 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 9 providers | Median of 3 providers | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 8,192 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | OpenLlama 3.2 Community License | OpenMistral Research License |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 9 (best) | 3 | 1 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2024 | Sep 25, 2024 | Oct 16, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2023 | Dec 2023 | — |
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
- Llama-3.2-3B$1.67
- Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Llama-3.2-3B or Ministral 8B Instruct?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Ministral 8B Instruct 57/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 56/100, Llama-3.2-3B 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Ministral 8B Instruct on price. 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, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Llama-3.2-3B 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); Llama-3.2-3B costs $0.10 input / $0.335 output per million tokens (median across 3 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 $0.159 for Llama-3.2-3B (1.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct has an ECI of 116.6, Llama-3.2-3B has not been scored yet and Ministral 8B Instruct has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Llama-3.2-3B and Ministral 8B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Llama-3.2-3B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Llama-3.2-3B and Ministral 8B Instruct have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Llama-3.2-3B up to 8,192, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Llama-3.2-3B accepts text; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights (Llama 3.2 Community License and Mistral Research License), so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Ministral 8B Instruct is the newest, released Oct 16, 2024. Llama-3.2-3B came out Sep 25, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Llama-3.2-3B 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.
