Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Ministral 3 8B 2512
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct leads Ministral 3 8B 2512 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 6.9 to 5.5, and Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs 1.9x less per output token ($0.08 vs $0.15 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 2 benchmarks have a result for both.
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Ministral 3 8B 2512: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for output tokens 1.9x cheaper ($0.08 vs $0.15 per million) and work measured by AA Coding Index, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 2
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct only
- 49
- Ministral 3 8B 2512 only
- 5
- Like-for-like categories
- 2 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct leads, 6.9 against 5.5.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 has a AA Agentic Index result, 0.6.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1065.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Ministral 3 8B 2512
Ministral 3 8B 2512 takes 262K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.0001, Ministral 3 8B 2512 $0.0002 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct not benchmarked, Ministral 3 8B 2512 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 4.3 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- AA Coding Index: Llama 3.1 8B Instruct 5.4 against Ministral 3 8B 2512 9.7, 4.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct $0.08 against Ministral 3 8B 2512 $0.15 per million output tokens, 1.9x apart.
- Context window
- Llama 3.1 8B Instruct takes 131K tokens, Ministral 3 8B 2512 262K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Bars | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 5.4 | 9.7 | Ministral 3 8B 2512 |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 11.6% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 0.8% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| WeirdML | 1.7% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1195 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1195 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 37 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 6.9 | 5.5 | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.5 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 0.6 | Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 16.4% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| BALROG | 15.1% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | 25.8% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.9% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 5.3% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 27.0% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1175 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1144 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1196 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 4.3 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.3% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 1.7% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| MATH level 5 | 22.9% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1179 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1180 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 47.6% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| MMLU | 56.1% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1193 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1182 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1206 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1166 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1065 | Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 990 | Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1031 | Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1052 | Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 28.6% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 18.0% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| DTBench | 50.9% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMCA | 5.4% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| PIQA | 81.2% | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text | 1187 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1159 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1154 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1218 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1148 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1151 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1144 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1061 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1053 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1178 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1169 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1158 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1172 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1181 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1162 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1145 | Not measured | Only Llama 3.1 8B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Meta Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Mistral Ministral 3 8B 2512 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Meta Llama | Mistral AI |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | July 23, 2024 | December 2, 2025 |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.05 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.08 | $0.15 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Llama 3.1 8B Instruct better than Ministral 3 8B 2512 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Llama 3.1 8B Instruct for output tokens 1.9x cheaper ($0.08 vs $0.15 per million) and work measured by AA Coding Index, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Ministral 3 8B 2512 costs $0.15 and $0.15. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Llama 3.1 8B Instruct or Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Ministral 3 8B 2512, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the Llama 3.1 8B Instruct vs Ministral 3 8B 2512 comparison based on?
2 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Llama 3.1 8B Instruct's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Ministral 3 8B 2512's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.