Ministral 14B vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Seed 2.0 Lite
Seed 2.0 Lite comes out ahead, 73 to 64 and 57 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 25% cheaper per token.
Mistral AIMinistral 14B
64/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $0.20
- Context262K
- Mistral AI
Ministral 8B Instruct
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context131K
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 2.0 Lite
73/100- ECI—
- Price$0.089 / $0.534
- Context256K
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 Ministral 8B Instruct (57). It leads on inputs & features. Ministral 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 priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · 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 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 2.0 LiteMinistral 14B: Text, Images · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Seed 2.0 Lite: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingMinistral 14B and Ministral 8B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0 and Mistral Research License)
| Measure | Weight | Ministral 14B | Ministral 8B Instruct | Seed 2.0 Lite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 83 | 89 | 83 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 50 | 25 | 80 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 24 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 57/100 | 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 8B InstructMistral AI | Seed 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 27.2% | — |
| 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) | 131,072 tokens | 256,000 tokens |
| Max output | 262,144 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 32,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | 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 | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | OpenMistral Research License | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | doubao-seed-2-0-lite-260428 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 6 (best) |
| Released | Dec 2, 2025 | Oct 16, 2024 | 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 8B Instruct$1.80
- Seed 2.0 Lite$1.96
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Ministral 14B, Ministral 8B Instruct or Seed 2.0 Lite?
Seed 2.0 Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ministral 14B (64) and Ministral 8B Instruct (57). It leads on inputs & features. Ministral 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, Ministral 14B, 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). 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 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. Ministral 14B has not been scored yet, 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 Ministral 14B, 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?
Ministral 14B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 2.0 Lite and 131,072 for Ministral 8B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Ministral 14B up to 262,144, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Seed 2.0 Lite up to 32,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Ministral 14B accepts text and images; 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?
Ministral 14B and Ministral 8B Instruct publishes its weights (Apache-2.0 and 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 14B came out Dec 2, 2025; Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 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.
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