ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Ministral 14B vs Seed 2.0 Lite

Seed 2.0 Lite comes out ahead, 73 to 64 and 56 on our weighted score, though Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is 22% cheaper per token.

  1. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    56/100
    • ECI116.6
    • Price$0.152 / $0.167
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 14B

    Released Dec 2, 2025

    64/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $0.20
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 14B
  3. Our pick

    ByteDance Seed

    Seed 2.0 Lite

    Released Feb 14, 2026

    73/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.089 / $0.534
    • Context256K
    Full specs Remove Seed 2.0 Lite
01 — Verdict

Seed 2.0 Lite is our pick

Seed 2.0 Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ministral 14B (64) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on inputs & features. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct wins 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 priceLlama-3.1-8B-InstructLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Ministral 14B $0.20 · Seed 2.0 Lite $0.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMinistral 14BMinistral 14B 262,144 · Seed 2.0 Lite 256,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSeed 2.0 LiteLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Ministral 14B: Text, Images · Seed 2.0 Lite: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 14BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMinistral 14BSeed 2.0 Lite
Price50%888383
Inputs & features30%255080
Context window20%243736
Overall100%56/10064/10073/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

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 Ministral 14B vs Seed 2.0 Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaMinistral 14BMistral AISeed 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.6——
ECI rank#145 of 148——
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.152$0.20$0.089 (best)
Output$0.167 (best)$0.20$0.534
Cached input——$0.018
Blended (3:1)$0.156 (best)$0.20$0.20
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateOver 32K: $0.134 / $0.802
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersMedian of 1 providersOfficial Volcengine Ark API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)256,000 tokens
Max output4,096 tokens262,144 tokens (best)32,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningNoNoYesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model ID——doubao-seed-2-0-lite-260428
API providers9 (best)16
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Dec 2, 2025Feb 14, 2026
Knowledge cutoffDec 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
  • Ministral 14B$2.40
  • Seed 2.0 Lite$1.96
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Ministral 14B or Seed 2.0 Lite?

Seed 2.0 Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ministral 14B (64) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on inputs & features. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct wins 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, Ministral 14B or Seed 2.0 Lite?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct is cheaper at $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). Ministral 14B costs $0.20 input / $0.20 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Seed 2.0 Lite costs $0.089 input / $0.534 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.156 per million tokens for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct versus $0.20 for Ministral 14B (1.3× as much) and $0.20 for Seed 2.0 Lite (1.3× 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, Ministral 14B has not been scored yet and Seed 2.0 Lite has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Ministral 14B and Seed 2.0 Lite yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Ministral 14B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 2.0 Lite and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Ministral 14B up to 262,144, Seed 2.0 Lite up to 32,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Ministral 14B accepts text and images; Seed 2.0 Lite accepts text, images and video. Seed 2.0 Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 14B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Seed 2.0 Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Seed 2.0 Lite is the newest, released Feb 14, 2026. Ministral 14B came out Dec 2, 2025; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: 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

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