Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 30B A3B are closely matched at 16.5 and 17.3 on the LLM Stats Score. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 1.0x cheaper per token.
Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 30B A3B are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 16.5 and 17.3.
In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
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 Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 4 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,100 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
Choose Qwen3 30B A3B
- you want predictable pricing at $0.10/M input and $0.30/M output
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) · 8 for Qwen3 30B A3B
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AIME 2024, AIME 2025, GPQA), while Qwen3 30B A3B is better at 1 benchmark (LiveCodeBench).
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens) is 1.5x more expensive than Qwen3 30B A3B ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens) is 2.0x cheaper than Qwen3 30B A3B ($0.30/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 30B A3B is more expensive than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512).*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 30B A3B has 22.5B more parameters than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512), making it 281.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) accepts 262,100 input tokens compared to Qwen3 30B A3B's 128,000 tokens. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) can generate longer responses up to 262,100 tokens, while Qwen3 30B A3B is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 30B A3B does not.
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Qwen3 30B A3B
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 (8B Reasoning 2512) was released on 2025-12-04, while Qwen3 30B A3B was released on 2025-04-29.
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 7 months newer than Qwen3 30B A3B.
Dec 4, 2025
10 months ago
7mo newerApr 29, 2025
1.4 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is available from Mistral AI. Qwen3 30B A3B is available from DeepInfra, Novita, Fireworks.
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Qwen3 30B A3B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 30B A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3 30B A3B.