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Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking are closely matched at 16.5 and 23.8 on the LLM Stats Score. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 3.3x cheaper per token.

Mistral AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 16.5 and 23.8.

In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is roughly 3.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

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)

  • cost matters — it's about 3.3x cheaper per token
  • 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-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Mistral AI
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
16.5
#222
23.8
#172
Reasoning
16.6
#214
24.5
#155
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 2
2 of 2
Input price
$0.15 / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
$0.15 / M
$1.50 / M
Context window
262,100
65,536

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Math
17.1#198
26.5#102
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) · 23 for Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

2 shared

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA).

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Sep 20 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, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens) costs the same as Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens) is 10.0x cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($1.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking 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 Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$0.15
Best providerMistral
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$1.50
Best providerNovita
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

72.0B diff

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking has 72.0B more parameters than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512), making it 900.0% larger.

Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
8.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
80.0Bparameters
8.0B
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
80.0B
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) accepts 262,100 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking's 65,536 tokens. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) can generate longer responses up to 262,100 tokens, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is limited to 65,536 tokens.

Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
Input262,100 tokens
Output262,100 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Sun Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking 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)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

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-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 3 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

9 months ago

2mo newer
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Sep 10, 2025

1.0 years 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

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is available from Mistral AI. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is available from Novita.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

mistral logo
Mistral
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)
✓ Preferred
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.

Which is better, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) or Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 16.5 and 23.8. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is made by Mistral AI and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) compare to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking in benchmarks?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) scores AIME 2024: 86.0%, AIME 2025: 78.7%, GPQA: 66.8%, LiveCodeBench: 61.6%. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking scores MMLU-Redux: 92.5%, IFEval: 88.9%, AIME 2025: 87.8%, WritingBench: 84.6%, MMLU-Pro: 82.7%.

Is Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Both models cost $0.15 per million input tokens.

What are the context window sizes for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) supports 262K tokens and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking supports 66K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (16.5 vs 23.8), context window (262K vs 66K), multimodal support (yes vs no). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is developed by Mistral AI and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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