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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Ministral 8B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3

Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 46 to 42 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 3.3× cheaper per token.

  1. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct
  2. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3

    Released Mar 13, 2024

    46/100
    • ECI118.4
    • Price$0.25 / $1.25
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 3 is our pick

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. 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%
  • Lowest priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingMinistral 8B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMinistral 8B InstructClaude Haiku 3
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%2736
Price25%8964
Inputs & features15%2560
Context window10%2432
Overall100%42/10046/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Ministral 8B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 3 specifications side by side
SpecificationMinistral 8B InstructMistral AIClaude Haiku 3Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—118.4
ECI rank—#143 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.2%36.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—1.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15 (best)$0.25
Output$0.15 (best)$1.25
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.15 (best)$0.50
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens (best)4,096 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenMistral Research LicenseProprietary
API model ID——
API providers12 (best)
ReleasedOct 16, 2024Mar 13, 2024
Knowledge cutoff—Aug 31, 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.

  • Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Claude Haiku 3$5.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Ministral 8B Instruct or Claude Haiku 3?

Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 46/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. 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 or Claude Haiku 3?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 $0.50 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% and Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Haiku 3 36.3%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 8B Instruct and Claude Haiku 3 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. Both 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. Maximum output per response: Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Claude Haiku 3 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. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Ministral 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. Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 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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