Ministral 8B Instruct vs Ministral 3B vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
Too close to call on our weighted score (Ministral 3B 43, Ministral 8B Instruct 42, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 42). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Mistral AIMinistral 8B Instruct
42/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context131K
- Mistral AI
Ministral 3B
43/100- ECI118.1
- Price$0.10 / $0.10
- Context128K
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
42/100- ECI116.6
- Price$0.152 / $0.167
- Context128K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Ministral 3B 43/100, Ministral 8B Instruct 42/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 42/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Ministral 8B Instruct for raw capability and Ministral 3B 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.
- CapabilityMinistral 8B InstructShared benchmarks: Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2% · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0% · Ministral 3B 25.3%
- Lowest priceMinistral 3BMinistral 3B $0.10 · Ministral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Ministral 3B 128,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsMinistral 8B Instruct: Text · Ministral 3B: Text · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | Ministral 8B Instruct | Ministral 3B | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 27 | 25 | 27 |
| Price | 25% | 89 | 97 | 88 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 42/100 | 43/100 | 42/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Ministral 8B InstructMistral AI | Ministral 3BMistral AI | 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 | 27.2% (best) | 25.3% | 27.0% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | — | 1.7% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 | $0.10 (best) | $0.152 |
| Output | $0.15 | $0.10 (best) | $0.167 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 | $0.10 (best) | $0.156 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 1 providers | Median of 9 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | 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 | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 9 (best) |
| Released | Oct 16, 2024 | Oct 16, 2024 | 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 8B Instruct$1.80
- Ministral 3B$1.20
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Ministral 8B Instruct, Ministral 3B or Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Ministral 3B 43/100, Ministral 8B Instruct 42/100, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 42/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Ministral 8B Instruct for raw capability and Ministral 3B 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, Ministral 3B 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). 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 $0.10 per million tokens for Ministral 3B versus $0.15 for Ministral 8B Instruct (1.5× as much) and $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1.6× 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 Ministral 3B 25.3%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 27.0%, Ministral 3B 25.3%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 8B Instruct, Ministral 3B and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 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 has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Ministral 3B and 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Ministral 3B up to 8,192, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Ministral 3B accepts text; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights (Mistral Research License), so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Ministral 8B Instruct is the newest, released Oct 16, 2024. 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.
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