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Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) are closely matched at 19.1 and 16.5 on the LLM Stats Score. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 40.0x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 19.1 and 16.5.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude 3.5 Sonnet wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is roughly 40.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) also accepts a larger context window (262,100 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results

Choose Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

  • cost matters — it's about 40.0x cheaper per token
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 262,100 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Anthropic
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Mistral AI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
19.1
#207
16.5
#222
Reasoning
20.1
#189
16.6
#214
Coding
11.4
#155
9.0
#177
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
$3.00 / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
$0.15 / M
Context window
200,000
262,100

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Math
23.2#132
17.1#198
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

19 reported for Claude 3.5 Sonnet · 4 for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

1 shared

Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Sep 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) costs less

For input processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 20.0x more expensive than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 100.0x more expensive than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is more expensive than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512).*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Sep 18 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.15
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) accepts 262,100 input tokens compared to Claude 3.5 Sonnet's 200,000 tokens. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) can generate longer responses up to 262,100 tokens, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is limited to 200,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Input262,100 tokens
Output262,100 tokens
Fri Sep 18 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released on 2024-10-22, while Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) was released on 2025-12-04.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 14 months newer than Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Oct 22, 2024

1.9 years ago

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

9 months ago

1.1yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is available from Mistral AI.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet
✓ Preferred
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512).

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 19.1 and 16.5. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is made by Mistral AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude 3.5 Sonnet compare to Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) in benchmarks?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet scores GSM8k: 96.4%, DocVQA: 95.2%, AI2D: 94.7%, HumanEval: 93.7%, BIG-Bench Hard: 93.1%. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) scores AIME 2024: 86.0%, AIME 2025: 78.7%, GPQA: 66.8%, LiveCodeBench: 61.6%.

Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet cheaper than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 20.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude 3.5 Sonnet costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) costs $0.15/M input and $0.15/M output via mistral.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (19.1 vs 16.5), context window (200K vs 262K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.15/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is developed by Mistral AI.

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