Ministral 3 8B 2512 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen3.5 397B A17B leads Ministral 3 8B 2512 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 21.4 to 5.5, and Ministral 3 8B 2512 costs 15.6x less per output token ($0.15 vs $2.34 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 5 benchmarks have a result for both.
Ministral 3 8B 2512 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Ministral 3 8B 2512 for output tokens 15.6x cheaper ($0.15 vs $2.34 per million) and work measured by AA Intelligence Index or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 5
- Ministral 3 8B 2512 only
- 2
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B only
- 61
- 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
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen3.5 397B A17B leads, 21.4 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
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen3.5 397B A17B leads, 1190 against 1065.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 262K tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Ministral 3 8B 2512
Ministral 3 8B 2512 $0.0002, Qwen3.5 397B A17B $0.0016 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Ministral 3 8B 2512 not benchmarked, Qwen3.5 397B A17B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Web design, 16.6 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Design Arena: game dev: Ministral 3 8B 2512 990 against Qwen3.5 397B A17B 1140, 18.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Ministral 3 8B 2512 $0.15 against Qwen3.5 397B A17B $2.34 per million output tokens, 15.6x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 262K tokens.
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 | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Bars | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 4 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 5 |
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1400 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| AA Coding Index | 9.7 | Not measured | Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 44.8% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 40.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 621.9 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1464 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1463 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1388 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1410 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 5.5 | 21.4 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.8 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 0.6 | Not measured | Only Ministral 3 8B 2512 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 95.6% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 24.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 89.3% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 86.4% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 18.0% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1448 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1450 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1277 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1292 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 31.2% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1453 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1454 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| MathArena | Not measured | 19.2% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1457 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1455 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1435 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1065 | 1190 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1161 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 990 | 1140 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1175 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1031 | 1160 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1052 | 1179 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1139 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index29 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 78.8% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 77.3% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 37.9% | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1437 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1424 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1402 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1262 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1443 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1498 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1384 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1447 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1446 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1441 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1415 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1399 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1268 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1314 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1271 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1262 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1230 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1265 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1260 | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | 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
Ministral 3 8B 2512 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Ministral 3 8B 2512 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Ministral 3 8B 2512 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 | Mistral Ministral 3 8B 2512 | Qwen3.5 397B A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Mistral AI | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | December 2, 2025 | February 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $0.39 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.15 | $2.34 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Ministral 3 8B 2512 better than Qwen3.5 397B A17B for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Ministral 3 8B 2512 for output tokens 15.6x cheaper ($0.15 vs $2.34 per million) and work measured by AA Intelligence Index or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Ministral 3 8B 2512 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Ministral 3 8B 2512 costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs $0.39 and $2.34. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Ministral 3 8B 2512 or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?
Neither: both take 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Ministral 3 8B 2512 vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B comparison based on?
5 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Ministral 3 8B 2512's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.5 397B A17B's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.