ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

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

Seed 2.0 Lite comes out ahead, 73 to 57 and 56 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 25% 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 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    57/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct
  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 8B Instruct (57) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 · Seed 2.0 Lite $0.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextSeed 2.0 LiteSeed 2.0 Lite 256,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSeed 2.0 LiteLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Seed 2.0 Lite: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 8B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMinistral 8B InstructSeed 2.0 Lite
Price50%888983
Inputs & features30%252580
Context window20%242436
Overall100%56/10057/10073/100

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 8B Instruct vs Seed 2.0 Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationLlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaMinistral 8B InstructMistral AISeed 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)116.6——
ECI rank#145 of 148——
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.0%27.2% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics1.7%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.152$0.15$0.089 (best)
Output$0.167$0.15 (best)$0.534
Cached input——$0.018
Blended (3:1)$0.156$0.15 (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 tokens131,072 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
WeightsOpenOpenMistral Research LicenseProprietary
API model ID——doubao-seed-2-0-lite-260428
API providers9 (best)16
ReleasedJul 23, 2024Oct 16, 2024Feb 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 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Seed 2.0 Lite$1.96
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

Seed 2.0 Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (57) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (56). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 8B Instruct or Seed 2.0 Lite?

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); 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 $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× 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 8B Instruct 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 8B Instruct 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 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, Ministral 8B Instruct 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 8B Instruct 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 8B Instruct publishes its weights (Mistral Research License) 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 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024; 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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