Ministral 3 8B vs Mistral Small 3.2
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 8B by Mistral or Mistral Small 3.2 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 Small 3.2 scores 1.5 points higher (7.0 vs 5.5) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($122 vs $27.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Small 3.2 when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 8B | Mistral Small 3.2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 5.5 | 7.0 | +27.3% Mistral Small 3.2 is 27.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.47 | $121.78 | +343.3% Mistral Small 3.2 is 4.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.94s | 9.55s | +93.3% Mistral Small 3.2 is 93.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.15 | $0.07 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.2 vs Ministral 3 8B: 27.3% more intelligence, 343.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.3% 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 Small 3.2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
Ministral 3 8BMistral Small 3.2Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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