Model comparison
Magistral Small vs Ministral 3B
Magistral Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.2 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 7.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Magistral Small's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 3 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AISummary
- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Magistral Small scores higher in 1 category and Ministral 3B in 2 categories; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Magistral Small leads 30.9 to 10.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 56.1% for Magistral Small and 25.3% for Ministral 3B.
- Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.10 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
- Ministral 3B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Magistral Small | Ministral 3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 30.2 | 26.2 |
| Released | 2025-06-10 | 2024-10-01 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 131K |
| Max output | 40K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $0.10 |
| Results tracked | 10 | 6 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Magistral Small: 38.4 (#176), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 35.2% | — |
Reasoning Ministral 3B leads
Magistral Small: 6.8 (#350), Ministral 3B: 18.4 (#282)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| DTBench | 61.3% | 51.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 133.19 | 118.1 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 6.3% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 5% | — |
| CritPt | 0.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 3% | — |
| LMCA | — | 5.5% |
Math Too close to call
Magistral Small: 26.2 (#261), Ministral 3B: 26.6 (#258)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 30% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 14.4% |
Knowledge Magistral Small leads
Magistral Small: 30.9 (#223), Ministral 3B: 10.4 (#302)
| Benchmark | Magistral Small | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | 25.3% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 7.3% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Magistral Small better than Ministral 3B?
Magistral Small is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.2 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 7.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Magistral Small's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Magistral Small or Ministral 3B?
Ministral 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.10 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.
Which has the bigger context window?
Ministral 3B does, with 131K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Magistral Small and Ministral 3B share?
3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Magistral Small has 10 scored results on Noometry and Ministral 3B has 6.