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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Ministral 8B Instruct vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Gemma 3 4B IT

Gemma 3 4B IT comes out ahead, 47 to 42 and 42 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  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. Meta

    Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct

    Released Jul 23, 2024

    42/100
    • ECI116.6
    • Price$0.152 / $0.167
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
  3. Our pick

    Google

    Gemma 3 4B IT

    Released Mar 12, 2025

    47/100
    • ECI116.1
    • Price$0.05 / $0.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 3 4B IT
01 — Verdict

Gemma 3 4B IT is our pick

Gemma 3 4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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.

  • CapabilityMinistral 8B InstructShared benchmarks: Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0% · Gemma 3 4B IT 23.2%
  • Lowest priceGemma 3 4B ITGemma 3 4B IT $0.063 · Ministral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMinistral 8B Instruct and Gemma 3 4B ITMinistral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Gemma 3 4B IT 131,072 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemma 3 4B ITMinistral 8B Instruct: Text · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Gemma 3 4B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMinistral 8B InstructLlama-3.1-8B-InstructGemma 3 4B IT
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%272723
Price25%8988100
Inputs & features15%252550
Context window10%242424
Overall100%42/10042/10047/100
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 Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Gemma 3 4B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationMinistral 8B InstructMistral AILlama-3.1-8B-InstructMetaGemma 3 4B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—116.6 (best)116.1
ECI rank—#145 of 148 (best)#146 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.2% (best)27.0%23.2%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—1.7%7.5% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15$0.152$0.05 (best)
Output$0.15$0.167$0.10 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$0.15$0.156$0.063 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 9 providersMedian of 7 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens4,096 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenMistral Research LicenseOpenOpen
API model ID———
API providers19 (best)7
ReleasedOct 16, 2024Jul 23, 2024Mar 12, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Dec 2023Aug 2024
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
  • Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
  • Gemma 3 4B IT$0.70
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Ministral 8B Instruct, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Gemma 3 4B IT?

Gemma 3 4B IT is the better all-round choice, scoring 47/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (42). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Gemma 3 4B IT?

Gemma 3 4B IT is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 7 API providers). Ministral 8B Instruct costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.063 per million tokens for Gemma 3 4B IT versus $0.15 for Ministral 8B Instruct (2.4× as much) and $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (2.5× 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): Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0% and Gemma 3 4B IT 23.2%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%, Gemma 3 4B IT 23.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 8B Instruct, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Gemma 3 4B IT yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Ministral 8B Instruct 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?

Ministral 8B Instruct and Gemma 3 4B IT have the largest context windows (131,072 and 131,072 tokens), against 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Gemma 3 4B IT up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Gemma 3 4B IT accepts text and images. Gemma 3 4B IT handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights (Mistral Research License), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Gemma 3 4B IT is the newest, released Mar 12, 2025. Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Gemma 3 4B IT Aug 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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