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Mercury 3 vs Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 16.0. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 1.1x cheaper per token.

Inception · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 16.0, ranking #98 overall.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mercury 3 wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is roughly 1.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Mercury 3 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 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 Mercury 3

  • overall performance matters — it scores 36.1 and ranks #98 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

Choose Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

  • cost matters — it's about 1.1x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Mercury 3
Inception
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Mistral AI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
36.1
#98
16.0
#248
Reasoning
34.8
#103
16.1
#240
Coding
21.5
#105
8.8
#199
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
1 of 1
0 of 1
Input price
$0.10 / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
$0.35 / M
$0.15 / M
Context window
1,000,000
262,100

Individual benchmarks

12 reported for Mercury 3 · 4 for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

1 shared

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

Mercury 3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Oct 25 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, Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens) is 1.5x cheaper than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens) is 2.3x more expensive than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Mercury 3 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
Sun Oct 25 2026 • llm-stats.com
Inception
Mercury 3
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.35
Best providerInception
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.15
Best providerMistral
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Mercury 3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)'s 262,100 tokens. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) can generate longer responses up to 262,100 tokens, while Mercury 3 is limited to 131,072 tokens.

Inception
Mercury 3
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Input262,100 tokens
Output262,100 tokens
Sun Oct 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Mercury 3

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mercury 3 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.

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19, while Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) was released on 2025-12-04.

Mercury 3 is 11 months newer than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512).

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

6 days ago

10mo newer
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

10 months ago

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

Mercury 3 is available from Inception. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is available from Mistral AI.

Mercury 3

inception logo
Inception
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.35/1M

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?

Judge for yourself.

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

Mercury 3
✓ Preferred
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Mercury 3 vs Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512).

Which is better, Mercury 3 or Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 16.0. Mercury 3 is made by Inception 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 Mercury 3 compare to Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) in benchmarks?

Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) scores AIME 2024: 86.0%, AIME 2025: 78.7%, GPQA: 66.8%, LiveCodeBench: 61.6%.

Is Mercury 3 cheaper than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Mercury 3 is 1.5x cheaper for input tokens. Mercury 3 costs $0.10/M input and $0.35/M output via inception. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) costs $0.15/M input and $0.15/M output via mistral.

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

Mercury 3 supports 1.0M 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 Mercury 3 and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (36.1 vs 16.0), context window (1.0M vs 262K), input pricing ($0.10 vs $0.15/M), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mercury 3 and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)?

Mercury 3 is developed by Inception and Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is developed by Mistral AI.

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