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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2

Mistral Small 3.2 comes out ahead, 57 to 42 on our weighted score.

  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

    Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    57/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Mistral Small 3.2 is our pick

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability 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.

  • CapabilityMistral Small 3.2Shared benchmarks: Mistral Small 3.2 49.1% · Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%
  • Lowest priceSame priceMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsMistral Small 3.2Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMinistral 8B InstructMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityShared benchmarks50%2749
Price25%8989
Inputs & features15%2550
Context window10%2424
Overall100%42/10057/100
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 Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationMinistral 8B InstructMistral AIMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—131.7
ECI rank—#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions27.2%49.1% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—30.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15$0.10 (best)
Output$0.15 (best)$0.30
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.15$0.15
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model ID—mistral-small-2506
API providers16 (best)
ReleasedOct 16, 2024Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Mar 2025
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
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Ministral 8B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (42). It leads on capability 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 or Mistral Small 3.2?

Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 cost the same: $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Mistral Small 3.2 49.1% and Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Mistral Small 3.2 49.1%, Ministral 8B Instruct 27.2%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Mistral Small 3.2 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?

Ministral 8B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images. Mistral Small 3.2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

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

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025.

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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