Ministral 3 8B vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 8B by Mistral or Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) by NVIDIA? 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
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) scores 7.3 points higher (12.8 vs 5.5) but costs 48× as much to run the benchmark ($1319 vs $27.5; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 8B | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 5.5 | 12.8 | +132.7% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 2.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.47 | $1,318.62 | +4700.2% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 48× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.75s | 16.82s | +192.5% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 192.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.15 | $0.30 / $0.90 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) vs Ministral 3 8B: 132.7% more intelligence, 4700.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 192.5% 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.
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Ministral 3 8BNemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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