Model comparison
Ministral 3B vs Mistral Small 3.2
Mistral Small 3.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.8 to 25.6 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 3.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Small 3.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 2 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AISummary
- They share 2 benchmarks with published results for both. Ministral 3B scores higher in 1 category and Mistral Small 3.2 in 2 categories; one gap is clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Mistral Small 3.2 leads 26.8 to 10.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 25.3% for Ministral 3B and 49.1% for Mistral Small 3.2.
- Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.04 per million input/output tokens, against $0.0938 / $0.25 for Mistral Small 3.2.
- Mistral Small 3.2 accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Ministral 3B | Mistral Small 3.2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Mistral AI |
| Noometry Index | 25.6 | 30.8 |
| Released | 2024-10-01 | 2025-06-20 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 128K | 256K |
| Max output | 128K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.04 | $0.0938 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.04 | $0.25 |
| Results tracked | 6 | 6 |
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Category by category
Reasoning Too close to call
Ministral 3B: 17.7 (#278), Mistral Small 3.2: 17.5 (#282)
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 118.08 | 131.73 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 40.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 1% |
| DTBench | 51.7% | — |
| LMCA | 5.5% | — |
Math Too close to call
Ministral 3B: 24.5 (#257), Mistral Small 3.2: 24.9 (#251)
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 30.3% |
| MATH Level 5 | 14.4% | — |
Knowledge Mistral Small 3.2 leads
Ministral 3B: 10.4 (#297), Mistral Small 3.2: 26.8 (#249)
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 25.3% | 49.1% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.3% | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Ministral 3B: —, Mistral Small 3.2: 45.1 (#219)
| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1255 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Ministral 3B better than Mistral Small 3.2?
Mistral Small 3.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.8 to 25.6 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 3.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Mistral Small 3.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Ministral 3B or Mistral Small 3.2?
Ministral 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.04 per million output tokens; Mistral Small 3.2 lists at $0.0938 and $0.25.
Which has the bigger context window?
Mistral Small 3.2 does, with 256K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Ministral 3B and Mistral Small 3.2 share?
2 benchmarks have published results for both models. Ministral 3B has 6 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3.2 has 6.