Ministral 3B vs Seed 2.0 Lite vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
Seed 2.0 Lite comes out ahead, 73 to 61 and 56 on our weighted score, though Ministral 3B is 2× cheaper per token.
Mistral AIMinistral 3B
61/100- ECI118.1
- Price$0.10 / $0.10
- Context128K
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 2.0 Lite
73/100- ECI—
- Price$0.089 / $0.534
- Context256K
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
56/100- ECI116.6
- Price$0.152 / $0.167
- Context128K
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 · Ministral 3B 128,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 2.0 LiteMinistral 3B: Text · Seed 2.0 Lite: Text, Images, Video · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingMinistral 3B and Llama-3.1-8B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Ministral 3B | Seed 2.0 Lite | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 97 | 83 | 88 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 80 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 36 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 61/100 | 73/100 | 56/100 |
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 3BMistral AI | Seed 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 118.1 (best) | — | 116.6 |
| ECI rank | #144 of 148 (best) | — | #145 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 25.3% | — | 27.0% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | — | 1.7% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 | $0.089 (best) | $0.152 |
| Output | $0.10 (best) | $0.534 | $0.167 |
| Cached input | — | $0.018 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.10 (best) | $0.20 | $0.156 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 32K: $0.134 / $0.802 | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Official Volcengine Ark API | Median of 9 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 32,000 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | doubao-seed-2-0-lite-260428 | — |
| API providers | 1 | 6 | 9 (best) |
| Released | Oct 16, 2024 | Feb 14, 2026 | Jul 23, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2024 | — | Dec 2023 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Ministral 3B$1.20
- Seed 2.0 Lite$1.96
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Ministral 3B, Seed 2.0 Lite or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?
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, Ministral 3B, Seed 2.0 Lite or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?
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. Ministral 3B has an ECI of 118.1, Seed 2.0 Lite has not been scored yet and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct has an ECI of 116.6.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 3B, Seed 2.0 Lite and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 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 Ministral 3B and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Ministral 3B up to 8,192, Seed 2.0 Lite up to 32,000, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Ministral 3B accepts text; Seed 2.0 Lite accepts text, images and video; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text. Seed 2.0 Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Ministral 3B and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 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: Ministral 3B Mar 2024, 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.
