ResearchLLM Verifications Leaderboard

Data as of · 78 models, 80 questions · reviewed by Suhas Bhairav · methodology

Head to head · tested 27 Oct 2026

Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Ministral 3 8B 2512: accuracy, speed and price

Ministral 3 8B 2512 is more accurate; Ministral 3 3B 2512 is cheaper.

MistralMinistral 3 3B 251226.2% score · #67$0.00019 per question252 tok/sMistralMinistral 3 8B 251242.5% score · #52$0.00027 per question124 tok/s

Verdict

Built from the measurements below

  • Ministral 3 8B 2512 is more accurate: 42.5% against 26.2% on the same 80 questions, a 16.2-point gap that is statistically significant.
  • Ministral 3 3B 2512 is 1.4× cheaper per question as billed ($0.00019 vs $0.00027), reasoning tokens included.
  • Ministral 3 3B 2512 generates text 2.0× faster: 252 tokens per second against 124.
  • Ministral 3 8B 2512 accepts more context: 262k tokens against 131k.

Which should you choose?

Choose Ministral 3 3B 2512 for faster streaming. Choose Ministral 3 8B 2512 for the most accurate answers of the two, the lower cost per correct answer ($0.00063 against $0.00074) and a 262k-token context window. The widest subject gap is in economics: Ministral 3 8B 2512 answered 7 of 9 correctly, Ministral 3 3B 2512 4 of 9. With so few questions per subject, treat this as a lead to test on your own prompts, not a result.

Accuracy gap -16.2 points (z = -2.16). A winner is called only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.

Head to head

Same questions, same prompt, same API

MeasureMinistral 3 3B 2512Ministral 3 8B 2512Edge
Verification scoreHigher is better26.2%42.5%Ministral 3 8B 2512
Cost per questionLower is better$0.00019$0.00027Ministral 3 3B 2512
Output speedHigher is better252124Ministral 3 3B 2512
Time to first tokenLower is better0.3 s0.3 sSimilar
End-to-end response timeLower is better1.6 s3.5 sMinistral 3 3B 2512
Tokens per questionLower is better1,6521,496Ministral 3 8B 2512
Context windowHigher is better131k262kMinistral 3 8B 2512

Side by side

Bars are scaled to the larger of the two values. The winner on each measure is marked in bold.

Every measure

Ministral 3 3B 2512 first, Ministral 3 8B 2512 second

Verification scorehigher is better
Ministral 3 3B 251226.2%
Ministral 3 8B 251242.5%
Cost per questionlower is better
Ministral 3 3B 2512$0.00019
Ministral 3 8B 2512$0.00027
Output speedhigher is better
Ministral 3 3B 2512252
Ministral 3 8B 2512124
Time to first tokenlower is better
Ministral 3 3B 25120.3 s
Ministral 3 8B 25120.3 s
End-to-end response timelower is better
Ministral 3 3B 25121.6 s
Ministral 3 8B 25123.5 s
Tokens per questionlower is better
Ministral 3 3B 25121,652
Ministral 3 8B 25121,496
Context windowhigher is better
Ministral 3 3B 2512131k
Ministral 3 8B 2512262k

Score vs. cost per question

Both models in color, every other model in grey

Most attractive quadrant0255075100$0.00001$0.0001$0.001$0.01$0.10Cost per question (USD, log) →Verification score (%) →Qwen3.8 2.4T A95BCommand AReka Flash 3Gemma 4 26B A4BGemma 4 31BQwen3.5 397B A17BHermes 4 405BMuse WonderGrok 4.7o3gpt-oss-20bGranite 4.0 MicroMinistral 3 3B 2512Nova Micro 1.0Phi 4Ministral 3 8B 2512Granite 4.2 8BHy3GLM 5.3 FlashSolar Pro 4MiniMax M3Mistral Large 4Claude Opus 5.5GPT-6.1 SolGemini 4 ArgonGPT-5.4GPT-6 Lunagpt-oss-120bLlama 4 Maverick

Specifications and pricing

From OpenRouter's catalogue, plus the leaderboard's test dates

SpecificationMinistral 3 3B 2512Ministral 3 8B 2512
CreatorMistralMistral
Released2 Dec 20252 Dec 2025
WeightsOpen weightsOpen weights
ReasoningNoNo
Inputtext, imagetext, image
Outputtexttext
Context window131k tokens262k tokens
Knowledge cutoff——
List price in / out per 1M$0.1 / $0.1$0.15 / $0.15
Blended price per 1M (3:1)$0.10$0.15
Cheapest hostMistral · $0.1 / $0.1Mistral · $0.15 / $0.15
Hosts on OpenRouter11
Last tested26 Oct 202626 Oct 2026

Compare any two models →

Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs Ministral 3 8B 2512: frequently asked questions

Is Ministral 3 3B 2512 better than Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Ministral 3 8B 2512 is more accurate: it answered 34 of 80 questions correctly (42.5%) against 21 of 80 (26.2%) for Ministral 3 3B 2512. Ministral 3 8B 2512 is more accurate; Ministral 3 3B 2512 is cheaper.
Which is cheaper, Ministral 3 3B 2512 or Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is cheaper: $0.00019 per question as billed, against $0.00027. List prices: Ministral 3 3B 2512 $0.1 in / $0.1 out, Ministral 3 8B 2512 $0.15 in / $0.15 out per million tokens.
Which is faster, Ministral 3 3B 2512 or Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is faster at 252 output tokens per second, against 124. Time to first token: 0.3 s for Ministral 3 3B 2512, 0.3 s for Ministral 3 8B 2512.
Which has the larger context window, Ministral 3 3B 2512 or Ministral 3 8B 2512?
Ministral 3 8B 2512, with 262k tokens against 131k.