Seed 2.0 Lite vs Ministral 8B Instruct
Seed 2.0 Lite comes out ahead, 73 to 57 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 25% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 2.0 Lite
73/100- ECI—
- Price$0.089 / $0.534
- Context256K
Mistral AIMinistral 8B Instruct
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context131K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Seed 2.0 Lite is our pick
Seed 2.0 Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (57). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. 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 priceMinistral 8B InstructMinistral 8B Instruct $0.15 · Seed 2.0 Lite $0.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextSeed 2.0 LiteSeed 2.0 Lite 256,000 · Ministral 8B Instruct 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 2.0 LiteSeed 2.0 Lite: Text, Images, Video · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingMinistral 8B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
| Measure | Weight | Seed 2.0 Lite | Ministral 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 83 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 80 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 73/100 | 57/100 |
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 2.0 LiteByteDance Seed | Ministral 8B InstructMistral AI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 27.2% |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.089 (best) | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.534 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.018 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.20 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.134 / $0.802 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Volcengine Ark API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,000 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenMistral Research License |
| API model ID | doubao-seed-2-0-lite-260428 | — |
| API providers | 6 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Feb 14, 2026 | Oct 16, 2024 |
| 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 2.0 Lite$1.96
- Ministral 8B Instruct$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Seed 2.0 Lite or Ministral 8B Instruct?
Seed 2.0 Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ministral 8B Instruct (57). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Ministral 8B Instruct wins on price. 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 2.0 Lite or Ministral 8B Instruct?
Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Seed 2.0 Lite costs $0.089 input / $0.534 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.20 for Seed 2.0 Lite (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Seed 2.0 Lite has not been scored yet and Ministral 8B Instruct has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed 2.0 Lite and Ministral 8B Instruct 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?
Seed 2.0 Lite has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Ministral 8B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Seed 2.0 Lite up to 32,000, Ministral 8B Instruct up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Seed 2.0 Lite accepts text, images and video; Ministral 8B Instruct accepts text. Seed 2.0 Lite 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; Seed 2.0 Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Seed 2.0 Lite is the newest, released Feb 14, 2026. Ministral 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 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.
Related comparisons
- Add Trendyol Asure 12BThree-way comparison
- Seed 2.0 Lite vs Trendyol Asure 12BTrendyol
- Seed 2.0 Lite vs Ministral 14BMistral AI
- Seed 2.0 Lite vs Step 3.5 FlashStepFun
- Seed 2.0 Lite vs MiMo-V2.5Xiaomi
- Ministral 8B Instruct vs Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta · ECI 116.6
- Ministral 8B Instruct vs Gemma 3 4B ITGoogle · ECI 116.1
