AI model comparison
Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Mistral
Ministral 3 3B 2512
The smallest model in the Ministral 3 family, Ministral 3 3B is a powerful, efficient tiny language model with vision capabilities.
- Input / 1M
- $0.10
- Output / 1M
- $0.10
- Context
- 131K
Meta's latest class of model (Llama 3.1) launched with a variety of sizes & flavors. This 8B instruct-tuned version is fast and efficient.
- Input / 1M
- $0.05
- Output / 1M
- $0.08
- Context
- 131K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
1.8x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
6.9 vs 4.8 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Tie
131K vs 131K tokens
Newer release
Ministral 3 3B 2512
Released December 2, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Ministral 3 3B 25124.8Coding index
Ministral 3 3B 25124.8Agentic index
Ministral 3 3B 25120.8Pricing
Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.05 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.10 | $0.08 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.01 | $0.03 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Ministral 3 3B 2512$0.25Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Ministral 3 3B 2512$3.40$0.70 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Ministral 3 3B 2512$15.20$1.70 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 131K tokens | 131K tokens |
| Max output | 105K tokens | 118K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | December 2, 2025 | July 23, 2024 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Ministral 3 3B 2512View full model details- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Mistral Nemo
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Nova Micro 1.0
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Mistral Small 3
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Gemma 3 12B
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Ministral 3 8B 2512
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Phi 4
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Ministral 3 14B 2512
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Granite 4.0 Micro
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Gemma 3 4B
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs gpt-oss-20b
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Mistral Nemo
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Nova Micro 1.0
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama 4 Scout
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Ministral 3 8B 2512
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Phi 4
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Granite 4.0 Micro
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Reka Flash 3
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Gemma 3 4B
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Llama 3.2 1B Instruct
Our take
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is 1.8x cheaper for a typical chat. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (6.9 vs 4.8). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Ministral 3 3B 2512 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct cheaper?
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.05 per 1M input tokens and $0.08 per 1M output tokens, while Ministral 3 3B 2512 costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.10 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Ministral 3 3B 2512 or Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
Ministral 3 3B 2512 supports up to 131K tokens of context, compared with 131K for Llama 3.1 8B Instruct.
Is Ministral 3 3B 2512 smarter than Llama 3.1 8B Instruct?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Ministral 3 3B 2512 scores 4.8 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct scores 6.9, putting Llama 3.1 8B Instruct ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Ministral 3 3B 2512 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Ministral 3 3B 2512 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Ministral 3 3B 2512 and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.