Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google or Ministral 3 3B by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite scores 10.8 points higher (15.6 vs 4.8) but costs 13× as much to run the benchmark ($156 vs $12.2; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 4.8 | −69.2% Ministral 3 3B is 69.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $12.23 | −92.2% Ministral 3 3B is 92.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.10s | 3.07s | −49.7% Ministral 3 3B is 49.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 69.2% less intelligence, 92.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 49.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteMinistral 3 3BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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