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MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)

MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads the LLM Stats Score 48.5 to 7.4.

MiniMax · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads the overall LLM Stats Score 48.5 to 7.4, ranking #29 overall.

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

Choose MiniMax M3.1 Flash

  • overall performance matters — it scores 48.5 and ranks #29 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

Choose Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax
Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)
Mistral AI
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
48.5
#29
7.4
#308
Reasoning
45.8
#34
9.0
#286
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.15 / M
— / M
Output price
$0.60 / M
— / M
Context window
1,000,000
—

Individual benchmarks

14 reported for MiniMax M3.1 Flash · 4 for Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)

No common benchmarks found

MiniMax M3.1 Flash and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash specifies input context (1,000,000 tokens). Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash specifies output context (524,288 tokens).

MiniMax
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output524,288 tokens
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Oct 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both MiniMax M3.1 Flash and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) support multimodal inputs.

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

MiniMax M3.1 Flash

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is licensed under a proprietary license, while Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) uses Apache 2.0.

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

MiniMax M3.1 Flash

Proprietary

Closed source

Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

MiniMax M3.1 Flash was released on 2026-10-19, while Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) was released on 2025-12-04.

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is 11 months newer than Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512).

MiniMax M3.1 Flash

Oct 19, 2026

1 days ago

10mo newer
Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 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

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against MiniMax M3.1 Flash and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

MiniMax M3.1 Flash
✓ Preferred
Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about MiniMax M3.1 Flash vs Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512).

Which is better, MiniMax M3.1 Flash or Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash leads the LLM Stats Score 48.5 to 7.4. MiniMax M3.1 Flash is made by MiniMax and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 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 MiniMax M3.1 Flash compare to Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) in benchmarks?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash scores BabyVision: 91.0%, CharXiv-R: 82.5%, CyberGym: 82.2%, BankerToolBench: 76.2%, DeepSWE 1.1: 73.7%. Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) scores MATH: 87.6%, Wild Bench: 66.8%, Arena Hard: 50.9%, MM-MT-Bench: 8.1%.

What are the context window sizes for MiniMax M3.1 Flash and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash supports 1.0M tokens and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between MiniMax M3.1 Flash and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (48.5 vs 7.4), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes MiniMax M3.1 Flash and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512)?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is developed by MiniMax and Ministral 3 (8B Instruct 2512) is developed by Mistral AI.

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