Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct

    Comparison

    As of August 25, 2026, Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) and Ministral 8B Instruct have the same blended API cost at $0.20 per 1 million input plus 1 million output tokens. Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) is $0.10 / $0.10 per million tokens versus Ministral 8B Instruct at $0.10 / $0.10. Source: https://docs.mistral.ai/platform/pricing/

    Source: Mistral AI pricing (https://docs.mistral.ai/platform/pricing/)

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512)

    Mistral

    $0.20blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.10

    Output

    $0.10

    131.1K ctx|Open Source
    vs

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Mistral

    $0.20blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.10

    Output

    $0.10

    128K ctx|Open Source

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512)
    Ministral 8B Instruct
    Provider
    Provider
    Mistral
    Mistral
    License
    Open Source
    Open Source
    Release Date
    2025-12-04
    2024-10-16
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price0%
    $0.10
    $0.10
    Output Price0%
    $0.10
    $0.10
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $0.20
    $0.20
    Model Details
    Context Window
    131.1K
    128K
    Max Output Tokens
    131.1K
    128K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    N/A
    N/A
    Throughput
    1222 tok/s
    0.1 tok/s
    Benchmarks
    53.4%
    72.1%
    77.5%
    11.1%
    65%
    34.8%
    54.5%
    48.3%
    71.9%
    70.9%
    57.5%
    83%
    65.5%
    75.3%

    Verdict

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct: the bottom line

    Both models are closely matched on benchmarks. Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) has the pricing advantage, making it the better value unless Ministral 8B Instruct's specific capabilities are critical to your workflow.

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) or Ministral 8B Instruct?

    As of August 25, 2026, Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) is 0% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) costs $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.10 per million output tokens ($0.20 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). Ministral 8B Instruct costs $0.10 / $0.10 per million tokens ($0.20 blended). Sources: https://docs.mistral.ai/platform/pricing/ and https://docs.mistral.ai/platform/pricing/. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct cost per million tokens?

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) Mistral API pricing is $0.10 input and $0.10 output per million tokens via Mistral AI. Ministral 8B Instruct Mistral API pricing is $0.10 input and $0.10 output per million tokens via Mistral AI. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) or Ministral 8B Instruct?

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) has a published LiveCodeBench score of 54.8%. Ministral 8B Instruct does not have that eval on this page yet.

    What is the context window for Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct?

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) supports a 131K token context window, while Ministral 8B Instruct supports 128K tokens. Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) or Ministral 8B Instruct?

    Shared benchmark scores for Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) and Ministral 8B Instruct are still limited. Check the comparison table for the evals each model has published. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) or Ministral 8B Instruct better for production use?

    Both Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) and Ministral 8B Instruct are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) and Ministral 8B Instruct in my app?

    Yes. Call Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) through Mistral AI and Ministral 8B Instruct through Mistral AI with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published Mistral API pricing and Mistral API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://docs.mistral.ai/platform/pricing/ and https://docs.mistral.ai/platform/pricing/. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) and Ministral 8B Instruct?

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) supports up to 131K output tokens per request, while Ministral 8B Instruct supports up to 128K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) or Ministral 8B Instruct?

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) runs at approximately 1222 tokens/second while Ministral 8B Instruct runs at 0.1 tokens/second. Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) is faster in raw throughput. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) or Ministral 8B Instruct from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) vs Ministral 8B Instruct pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Min istral 3 (3B Reasoning 2512) costs $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output via Mistral AI. Ministral 8B Instruct costs $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output via Mistral AI.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

    The index

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