Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) vs Qwen2 7B Instruct
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) and Qwen2 7B Instruct are closely matched at -6.4 and -4.5 on the LLM Stats Score.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) and Qwen2 7B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -6.4 and -4.5.
In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
Choose Qwen2 7B Instruct
- you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
6 reported for Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) · 14 for Qwen2 7B Instruct
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) outperforms in 1 benchmarks (MMLU), while Qwen2 7B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen2 7B Instruct has 4.6B more parameters than Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512), making it 154.0% larger.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2 7B Instruct does not.
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512)
Qwen2 7B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) was released on 2025-12-04, while Qwen2 7B Instruct was released on 2024-07-23.
Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) is 17 months newer than Qwen2 7B Instruct.
Dec 4, 2025
9 months ago
1.4yr newerJul 23, 2024
2.2 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) and Qwen2 7B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Ministral 3 (3B Base 2512) vs Qwen2 7B Instruct.