Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking are closely matched at 16.5 and 16.3 on the LLM Stats Score. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 4.4x cheaper per token.

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

Which is better?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 16.5 and 16.3.

In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is roughly 4.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking also accepts a larger context window (262,144 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 4.4x cheaper per token
you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025

Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Better token value: Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Mistral AI

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Core performance indexes

LLM Stats Score

16.5

#210 · 4 evals

Best

16.3

#212 · 50 evals

Reasoning

16.6

#202 · 4 evals

17.2

#200 · 28 evals

Best

Cost, coverage & limits

Benchmark wins

0 of 2

2 of 2

Best

Input price

$0.15 / M

Best

$0.18 / M

Output price

$0.15 / M

Best

$2.09 / M

Context window

262,100

262,144

Best

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared

Index

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Math

17.1#192 · 2 evals

19.1#165 · 11 evals

Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

4 reported for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) · 50 for Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

2 shared

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

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Sep 04 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) is 1.2x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking ($0.18/1M tokens).

For output processing, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) ($0.15/1M tokens) is 13.9x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking ($2.09/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 8B 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

Fri Sep 04 2026 • llm-stats.com

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Input tokens$0.15

Output tokens$0.15

Best providerMistral

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Input tokens$0.18

Output tokens$2.09

Best providerDeepinfra

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

1.0B diff

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking has 1.0B more parameters than Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512), making it 12.5% larger.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

8.0Bparameters

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

9.0Bparameters

8.0B

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

9.0B

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)'s 262,100 tokens. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is limited to 262,100 tokens.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Input262,100 tokens

Output262,100 tokens

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Input262,144 tokens

Output262,144 tokens

Fri Sep 04 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking support multimodal inputs.

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

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Text

Images

Audio

Video

Qwen3 VL 8B 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 VL 8B 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 VL 8B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 2 months newer than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

9 months ago

2mo newer

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

11 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

Provider Availability

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is available from Mistral AI. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is available from DeepInfra.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Mistral

Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.15/1M

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Deepinfra

Input Price:Input: $0.18/1MOutput Price:Output: $2.09/1M

* 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 VL 8B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

✓ Preferred

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking.

Which is better, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) or Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 16.5 and 16.3. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is made by Mistral AI and Qwen3 VL 8B 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 VL 8B Thinking in benchmarks?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) scores AIME 2024: 86.0%, AIME 2025: 78.7%, GPQA: 66.8%, LiveCodeBench: 61.6%. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 95.3%, ScreenSpot: 93.6%, MMLU-Redux: 88.8%, MMBench-V1.1: 87.5%, InfoVQAtest: 86.0%.

Is Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) cheaper than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) is 1.2x cheaper for input tokens. Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) costs $0.15/M input and $0.15/M output via mistral. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking costs $0.18/M input and $2.09/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) supports 262K tokens and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking supports 262K 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 VL 8B Thinking?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (16.5 vs 16.3), context window (262K vs 262K), input pricing ($0.15 vs $0.18/M). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

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

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Which is better?

Choose Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

At a glance

Capability indexes

Individual benchmarks

Human preference

Pricing Analysis

Model Size

Context Window

Input capabilities

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

License

Release Timeline

Knowledge Cutoff

Provider Availability

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Outputs Comparison

Judge for yourself.

FAQ

Which is better, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) or Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

How does Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) compare to Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking in benchmarks?

Is Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) cheaper than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

What are the context window sizes for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

What are the main differences between Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Who makes Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

More Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) comparisons

More Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking comparisons

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Which is better?

Choose Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

At a glance

Capability indexes

Individual benchmarks

Human preference

Pricing Analysis

Model Size

Context Window

Input capabilities

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

License

Release Timeline

Knowledge Cutoff

Provider Availability

Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512)

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Outputs Comparison

Judge for yourself.

Which is better, Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) or Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

How does Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) compare to Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking in benchmarks?

Is Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) cheaper than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

What are the context window sizes for Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

What are the main differences between Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Who makes Ministral 3 (8B Reasoning 2512) and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

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