Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base
Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base are closely matched at -4.7 and 0.3 on the LLM Stats Score. Ministral 8B Instruct is 1.5x cheaper per token.
Mistral AI · Mistral AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at -4.7 and 0.3.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Ministral 8B Instruct is roughly 1.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Ministral 8B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 1.5x cheaper per token
Choose Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
11 reported for Ministral 8B Instruct · 5 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base
Ministral 8B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base is better at 2 benchmarks (MMLU, TriviaQA).
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Ministral 8B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) costs the same as Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Ministral 8B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 3.0x cheaper than Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base ($0.30/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base is more expensive than Ministral 8B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base has 16.0B more parameters than Ministral 8B Instruct, making it 199.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Both models have the same input context window of 128,000 tokens. Both models can generate responses up to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base supports multimodal inputs, whereas Ministral 8B Instruct does not.
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Ministral 8B Instruct
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base
License
Usage and distribution terms
Ministral 8B Instruct is licensed under Mistral Research License, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Mistral Research License
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Ministral 8B Instruct was released on 2024-10-16, while Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base was released on 2025-03-17.
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base is 5 months newer than Ministral 8B Instruct.
Oct 16, 2024
2.0 years ago
Mar 17, 2025
1.6 years ago
5mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Ministral 8B Instruct is available from Mistral AI. Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base is available from Mistral AI.
Ministral 8B Instruct
Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B Base.