Llama 4 Scout vs Ministral 3 3B
Which is better for the money: Llama 4 Scout by Meta 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
Llama 4 Scout scores 1.7 points higher (6.5 vs 4.8) but costs 6.0× as much to run the benchmark ($73.6 vs $12.2; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Llama 4 Scout when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Llama 4 Scout | Ministral 3 3B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 6.5 | 4.8 | −26.2% Ministral 3 3B is 26.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $73.56 | $12.23 | −83.4% Ministral 3 3B is 83.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.15s | 3.06s | −40.6% Ministral 3 3B is 40.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.18 / $0.66 | $0.10 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Ministral 3 3B vs Llama 4 Scout: 26.2% less intelligence, 83.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 40.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Llama 4 Scout is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 34.60 for $66.8.
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Llama 4 ScoutMinistral 3 3BToday'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/llama-4-scout/ministral-3-3b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/llama-4-scout/ministral-3-3b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill