Ministral 3 8B vs Mistral Medium 3.5
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 8B by Mistral or Mistral Medium 3.5 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Mistral Medium 3.5 scores 8.7 points higher (14.2 vs 5.5) but costs 46× as much to run the benchmark ($1264 vs $27.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Medium 3.5 when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 8B | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 5.5 | 14.2 | +158.2% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 2.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.47 | $1,263.80 | +4500.7% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 46× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.94s | 17.68s | +257.9% Mistral Medium 3.5 is 257.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.15 | $1.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Medium 3.5 vs Ministral 3 8B: 158.2% more intelligence, 4500.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 257.9% 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 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 8BMistral 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-3-8b/mistral-medium-3-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/ministral-3-8b/mistral-medium-3-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill