Seed 1.6 Flash vs Ministral 3 3B
Seed 1.6 Flash comes out ahead, 78 to 74 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 1.6 Flash
78/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.223
- Context256K
Mistral AIMinistral 3 3B
74/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.10
- Context262K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Seed 1.6 Flash is our pick
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Ministral 3 3B (74). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash $0.072 · Ministral 3 3B $0.10 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMinistral 3 3BMinistral 3 3B 262,144 · Seed 1.6 Flash 256,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsSeed 1.6 Flash: Text, Images · Ministral 3 3B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingMinistral 3 3BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Seed 1.6 Flash | Ministral 3 3B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 97 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 70 | 60 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 78/100 | 74/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance Seed | Ministral 3 3BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.022 (best) | $0.10 |
| Output | $0.223 | $0.10 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.0044 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.072 (best) | $0.10 |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.045 / $0.445 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Volcengine Ark API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | doubao-seed-1-6-flash-250828 | — |
| API providers | 2 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Aug 28, 2025 | Dec 2, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Seed 1.6 Flash$0.668
- Ministral 3 3B$1.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Seed 1.6 Flash or Ministral 3 3B?
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Ministral 3 3B (74). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Seed 1.6 Flash or Ministral 3 3B?
Seed 1.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.223 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). Ministral 3 3B costs $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.072 per million tokens for Seed 1.6 Flash versus $0.10 for Ministral 3 3B (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Seed 1.6 Flash has not been scored yet and Ministral 3 3B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed 1.6 Flash and Ministral 3 3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Ministral 3 3B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 1.6 Flash. Maximum output per response: Seed 1.6 Flash up to 32,000, Ministral 3 3B up to 262,144 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Seed 1.6 Flash accepts text and images; Ministral 3 3B accepts text and images. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Ministral 3 3B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Seed 1.6 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Ministral 3 3B is the newest, released Dec 2, 2025. Seed 1.6 Flash came out Aug 28, 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.
