DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) by DeepSeek 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
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) scores 29.5 points higher (34.3 vs 4.8) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($200 vs $12.2; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 4.8 | −86.0% Ministral 3 3B is 86.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $199.63 | $12.23 | −93.9% Ministral 3 3B is 93.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 18.12s | 3.01s | −83.4% Ministral 3 3B is 83.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.28 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max): 86.0% less intelligence, 93.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 83.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)Ministral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash/ministral-3-3b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash/ministral-3-3b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill