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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Ministral 3B vs Seed 2.0 Lite

Seed 2.0 Lite comes out ahead, 73 to 61 and 56 on our weighted score, though Ministral 3B is 2× 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 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    61/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 3B
  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 3B (61) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Ministral 3B 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 priceMinistral 3BMinistral 3B $0.10 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Seed 2.0 Lite $0.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextSeed 2.0 LiteSeed 2.0 Lite 256,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 · Ministral 3B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSeed 2.0 LiteLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Ministral 3B: Text · Seed 2.0 Lite: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMinistral 3BSeed 2.0 Lite
Price50%889783
Inputs & features30%252580
Context window20%242436
Overall100%56/10061/10073/100

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 3B vs Seed 2.0 Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaMinistral 3BMistral AISeed 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.6118.1 (best)—
ECI rank#145 of 148#144 of 148 (best)—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0% (best)25.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.152$0.10$0.089 (best)
Output$0.167$0.10 (best)$0.534
Cached input——$0.018
Blended (3:1)$0.156$0.10 (best)$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 tokens128,000 tokens256,000 tokens (best)
Max output4,096 tokens8,192 tokens32,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningNoNoYesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model ID——doubao-seed-2-0-lite-260428
API providers9 (best)16
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Oct 16, 2024Feb 14, 2026
Knowledge cutoffDec 2023Mar 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.

  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
  • Seed 2.0 Lite$1.96
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Ministral 3B or Seed 2.0 Lite?

Seed 2.0 Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ministral 3B (61) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Ministral 3B 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 3B or Seed 2.0 Lite?

Ministral 3B is cheaper at $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); 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 $0.10 per million tokens for Ministral 3B versus $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1.6× as much) and $0.20 for Seed 2.0 Lite (2× 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 3B has an ECI of 118.1 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 3B 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?

Seed 2.0 Lite has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and 128,000 for Ministral 3B. Maximum output per response: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Ministral 3B up to 8,192, 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 3B accepts text; 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 3B publishes its weights 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 3B came out Oct 16, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Ministral 3B Mar 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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