Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) by Anthropic or Ministral 3 3B by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) scores 23.3 points higher (28.1 vs 4.8) but costs 100× as much to run the benchmark ($1218 vs $12.2; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 28.1 | 4.8 | −82.9% Ministral 3 3B is 82.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,218.17 | $12.23 | −99.0% Ministral 3 3B is 99.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.27s | 3.01s | −67.5% Ministral 3 3B is 67.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium): 82.9% less intelligence, 99.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 67.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium)Ministral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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