Ministral 3 3B vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 3B by Mistral or Mistral Medium 3.5 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
Mistral Medium 3.5 scores 9.4 points higher (14.2 vs 4.8) but costs 103× as much to run the benchmark ($1264 vs $12.2; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 3B | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 4.8 | 14.2 | +195.8% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 3.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $12.23 | $1,263.80 | +10233.6% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 103× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 3.07s | 17.96s | +485.0% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 485.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.10 | $1.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Ministral 3 3B: 195.8% more intelligence, 10233.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 485.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Ministral 3 3B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Mistral Medium 3.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Ministral 3 3BMistral Medium 3.5Today'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/ministral-3-3b/mistral-medium-3-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/ministral-3-3b/mistral-medium-3-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill