Ministral 14B vs Ministral 3 8B vs Seed 2.0 Lite
Too close to call on our weighted score (Seed 2.0 Lite 73, Ministral 3 8B 70, Ministral 14B 64). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Mistral AIMinistral 14B
64/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $0.20
- Context262K
- Mistral AI
Ministral 3 8B
70/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context262K
ByteDance SeedSeed 2.0 Lite
73/100- ECI—
- Price$0.089 / $0.534
- Context256K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Seed 2.0 Lite 73/100, Ministral 3 8B 70/100, Ministral 14B 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Ministral 3 8B 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 3 8BMinistral 3 8B $0.15 · Ministral 14B $0.20 · Seed 2.0 Lite $0.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMinistral 14B and Ministral 3 8BMinistral 14B 262,144 · Ministral 3 8B 262,144 · Seed 2.0 Lite 256,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 2.0 LiteMinistral 14B: Text, Images · Ministral 3 8B: Text, Images · Seed 2.0 Lite: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingMinistral 14B and Ministral 3 8BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0 and Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Ministral 14B | Ministral 3 8B | Seed 2.0 Lite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 83 | 89 | 83 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 50 | 60 | 80 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 37 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 70/100 | 73/100 |
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 | Ministral 14BMistral AI | Ministral 3 8BMistral AI | Seed 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.20 | $0.15 | $0.089 (best) |
| Output | $0.20 | $0.15 (best) | $0.534 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.018 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.20 | $0.15 (best) | $0.20 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Over 32K: $0.134 / $0.802 |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 1 providers | Official Volcengine Ark API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | OpenApache 2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | doubao-seed-2-0-lite-260428 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 6 (best) |
| Released | Dec 2, 2025 | Dec 2, 2025 | Feb 14, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Ministral 14B$2.40
- Ministral 3 8B$1.80
- Seed 2.0 Lite$1.96
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Ministral 14B, Ministral 3 8B or Seed 2.0 Lite?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Seed 2.0 Lite 73/100, Ministral 3 8B 70/100, Ministral 14B 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Ministral 3 8B 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, Ministral 14B, Ministral 3 8B or Seed 2.0 Lite?
Ministral 3 8B is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 3 8B 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. Ministral 14B has not been scored yet, Ministral 3 8B 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 Ministral 14B, Ministral 3 8B 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 and Ministral 3 8B have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 256,000 for Seed 2.0 Lite. Maximum output per response: Ministral 14B up to 262,144, Ministral 3 8B up to 262,144, Seed 2.0 Lite up to 32,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Ministral 14B accepts text and images; Ministral 3 8B 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?
Ministral 14B and Ministral 3 8B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0 and 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; Ministral 3 8B came out Dec 2, 2025.
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.
