Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Ministral 3 8B
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi or Ministral 3 8B by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 49.6 points higher (55.1 vs 5.5) but costs 113× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $27.5; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Ministral 3 8B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 55.1 | 5.5 | −90.0% Ministral 3 8B is 90.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,117.31 | $27.47 | −99.1% Ministral 3 8B is 99.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 42.64s | 5.40s | −87.3% Ministral 3 8B is 87.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.15 / $0.15 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 8B vs Kimi K3.1 Pro: 90.0% less intelligence, 99.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 87.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3.1 Pro is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Ministral 3 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Kimi K3.1 ProMinistral 3 8BToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro/ministral-3-8b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro/ministral-3-8b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill