Ministral 8B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 46 to 42 and 42 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 3.3× cheaper per token.
Mistral AIMinistral 8B Instruct
42/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context131K
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3
46/100- ECI118.4
- Price$0.25 / $1.25
- Context200K
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
42/100- ECI116.6
- Price$0.152 / $0.167
- Context128K
Claude Haiku 3 is our pick
Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityClaude Haiku 3Shared benchmarks: Claude Haiku 3 36.3% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%
- Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingMinistral 8B Instruct and Llama-3.1-8B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
| Measure | Weight | Ministral 8B Instruct | Claude Haiku 3 | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 27 | 36 | 27 |
| Price | 25% | 89 | 64 | 88 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 60 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 32 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 42/100 | 46/100 | 42/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Ministral 8B InstructMistral AI | Claude Haiku 3Anthropic | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 118.4 (best) | 116.6 |
| ECI rank | — | #143 of 148 (best) | #145 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 27.2% | 36.3% (best) | 27.0% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 1.8% (best) | 1.7% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 (best) | $0.25 | $0.152 |
| Output | $0.15 (best) | $1.25 | $0.167 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 (best) | $0.50 | $0.156 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 2 providers | Median of 9 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 200,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenMistral Research License | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 1 | 2 | 9 (best) |
| Released | Oct 16, 2024 | Mar 13, 2024 | Jul 23, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Aug 31, 2023 | 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 8B Instruct$1.80
- Claude Haiku 3$5.00
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Ministral 8B Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?
Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because Ministral 8B Instruct has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, Ministral 8B Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?
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); Claude Haiku 3 costs $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). 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 $0.50 for Claude Haiku 3 (3.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 8B Instruct, Claude Haiku 3 and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 3 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Claude Haiku 3 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Ministral 8B Instruct and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Ministral 8B Instruct and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct publishes its weights (Mistral Research License) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Ministral 8B Instruct is the newest, released Oct 16, 2024. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024; Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 2023, 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.
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