Ministral 3 3B vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 3B by Mistral or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? 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
Solar Mini 4 scores 19.3 points higher (24.1 vs 4.8) but costs 41× as much to run the benchmark ($502 vs $12.2; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Solar Mini 4 when you need intelligence above 4.8, and Ministral 3 3B when 4.8 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 3B | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 4.8 | 24.1 | +402.1% Solar Mini 4 is 5.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $12.23 | $502.02 | +4004.8% Solar Mini 4 is 41× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 3.01s | 23.11s | +667.8% Solar Mini 4 is 667.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.10 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Ministral 3 3B: 402.1% more intelligence, 4004.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 667.8% 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.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Ministral 3 3BSolar Mini 4Today'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/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/ministral-3-3b/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill