Ministral 3 8B vs Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Ministral 3 8B by Mistral or Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) by Alibaba? 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
Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) scores 14.7 points higher (20.2 vs 5.5) but costs 74× as much to run the benchmark ($2022 vs $27.5; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) when you need intelligence above 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B when 5.5 is enough.
| Metric | Ministral 3 8B | Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 5.5 | 20.2 | +267.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 3.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $27.47 | $2,022.49 | +7262.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 74× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.23s | 14.45s | +131.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 131.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.15 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) vs Ministral 3 8B: 267.3% more intelligence, 7262.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 131.9% 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.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Ministral 3 8BQwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)Today'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/qwen3-8-27b-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/ministral-3-8b/qwen3-8-27b-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill