# Ministral 3B vs Qwen3 8B

> Qwen3 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.7 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 3.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/ministral-3b-vs-qwen3-8b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 5

## Summary

- They share 5 benchmarks with published results for both. Ministral 3B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 8B in 2 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 8B leads 36.1 to 10.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 25.3% for Ministral 3B and 56.8% for Qwen3 8B.
- Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.10 per million input/output tokens, against $0.18 / $0.70 for Qwen3 8B.

## Snapshot

| | Ministral 3B | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 26.2 | 33.7 |
| Rank | 338 | 238 |
| Context | 131K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.10 | $0.18 |
| Output $/M | $0.10 | $0.70 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Ministral 3B: —
- Qwen3 8B: 34.0 (#248)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 22.6% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Ministral 3B: —
- Qwen3 8B: 30.2 (#78)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 42.6% |

## Reasoning

- Ministral 3B: 18.4 (#282)
- Qwen3 8B: 16.6 (#303)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| DTBench | 51.7% | 59.7% |
| LMCA | 5.5% | 8.8% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 118.1 | 136.17 |
| CritPt | — | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 5% |

## Math

- Ministral 3B: 26.6 (#258)
- Qwen3 8B: 34.9 (#191)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 56.1% |
| MATH Level 5 | 14.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Ministral 3B: 10.4 (#302)
- Qwen3 8B: 36.1 (#173)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 25.3% | 56.8% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.3% | 4.8% |

## Long Context

- Ministral 3B: —
- Qwen3 8B: 37.9 (#210)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Qwen3 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 62.1% |

## FAQ

### Is Ministral 3B better than Qwen3 8B?

Qwen3 8B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.7 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 3.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 8B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Ministral 3B or Qwen3 8B?

Ministral 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.10 per million output tokens; Qwen3 8B lists at $0.18 and $0.70.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 131K tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Ministral 3B and Qwen3 8B share?

5 benchmarks have published results for both models. Ministral 3B has 6 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 8B has 11.