Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512
Analysis Summary
Mistral Ministral 3 8B 2512 is the smaller sibling of the 14B variant, with an intelligence index of 14.8 and slightly lower scores across coding and agentic benchmarks. It retains vision, tool use, and function calling, and shares the 256K context window. The performance gap versus the 14B is small, making the choice largely a cost-versus-quality trade-off within the same tier.
For businesses, this model suits bulk content generation, lightweight classification, and simple structured outputs where per-token cost is the dominant concern. Reasoning depth and instruction-following are limited, so it should not be used for tasks requiring nuanced judgment or multi-step logic.
At $0.15 per million tokens in and out, it is one of the cheapest benchmarked models available. Teams with very high token volumes and straightforward task requirements will find it cost-effective, but should benchmark it against the 14B variant before committing, as the marginal cost saving may not justify the capability reduction.
Assessed June 30, 2026
Editorial notes
Mistral Ministral 3 8B 2512 is an ultra-cheap small model with vision and tool use support; best for high-volume, low-complexity content tasks where cost is the primary constraint.
Rankings consider pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, and real-world applicability and are refreshed as new models launch. Feedback?
DFO Verdict
Mistral Ministral 3 8B 2512 is an ultra-cheap small model with vision and tool use support; best for high-volume, low-complexity content tasks where cost is the primary constraint.
Benchmark scores
Magenta = intelligence Ā· Ink = technical/agentic Ā· Cyan = content & long-context Ā· Grey = community benchmarks. Data: Artificial Analysis, Hugging Face.
14.8 Intelligence IndexĀ·10 Coding IndexĀ·15.6 Agentic IndexĀ·31.7 Math Index
How Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 compares
Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 ranks #184 of 393 AI models we track for overall intelligence, #134 of 157 for coding, #212 of 300 for agentic tasks. Its 262K-token context window is larger than 80% of the models we list. At $0.15 per million input tokens it is cheaper than 59% of comparable models.
Dark bar = input Ā· light bar = output, scaled to the priciest peer.
1M tokens ā 8 full-length novels or ~2,500 pages of business documents in a single request.
Strongest on value. The pulled-in technical corner is the trade-off, and if the shape matters more than the price, this is your model.
Compare shapes side-by-side āPricing
| Token Type | Cost per 1M tokens | Cost per 1K tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Input | $0.15 | $0.000150 |
| Output | $0.15 | $0.000150 |
What would Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 cost your business?
Pick the job that looks most like yours, then fine-tune with the sliders. Estimates update live.
A website chatbot handling around 100 customer conversations a day, a few short messages each.
Full calculator with 612 models ā Price Calculator
These numbers get smaller with the right architecture.
We route routine calls to cheap models and save Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 for the hard ones. Most clients cut their estimate by 60-80%.
Talk to our teamAbout Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512
A balanced model in the Ministral 3 family, Ministral 3 8B is a powerful, efficient tiny language model with vision capabilities.
Frequently asked questions about Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512
How much does Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 cost?
Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens.
What is the context window of Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 has a context window of 262,144 tokens (262K).
Is Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 good for coding?
On our coding benchmark index, Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 ranks #134 of 157 models, placing it in the broader range of the field for code generation and debugging.
What can Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 do?
Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 supports image/vision input, tool use, and function calling.
Who created Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 is developed by Mistral and was released on December 2, 2025.
