Ministral 3 8B vs Mistral Large 3
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 8B by Mistral or Mistral Large 3 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Large 3 scores 3.8 points higher (9.3 vs 5.5) but costs 1.7× as much to run the benchmark ($46.4 vs $27.5; both budget class). Pick Mistral Large 3 when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Ministral 3 8B.
| Metric | Ministral 3 8B | Mistral Large 3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 5.5 | 9.3 | +69.1% Mistral Large 3 is 69.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.47 | $46.41 | +68.9% Mistral Large 3 is 68.9% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.36s | 6.78s | +26.5% Mistral Large 3 is 26.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.15 | $0.50 / $1.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Large 3 vs Ministral 3 8B: 69.1% more intelligence, 68.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 26.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Ministral 3 8B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Mistral Large 3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Ministral 3 8BMistral Large 3Today'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-3-8b/mistral-large-3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/ministral-3-8b/mistral-large-3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill