DeepSeek Coder 2.0 vs Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 66 to 36. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

DeepSeek Coder 2.0's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 52.8 against 15.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HumanEval, 82 to 24.

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.27 input / $1.10 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning). That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) is the reasoning model in the pair, while DeepSeek Coder 2.0 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.

Quick Verdict

Pick DeepSeek Coder 2.0 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Agentic

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

67.5

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

38.5

73
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
62
BrowseComp
41
65
OSWorld-Verified
36

Coding

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

52.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

15.2

82
HumanEval
24
51
SWE-bench Verified
17
45
LiveCodeBench
16
61
SWE-bench Pro
14

Multimodal & Grounded

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

58.6

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

33.4

50
MMMU-Pro
28
69
OfficeQA Pro
40

Reasoning

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

75.5

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

42.1

78
SimpleQA
32
76
MuSR
33
84
BBH
70
73
LongBench v2
44
71
MRCRv2
47

Knowledge

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

59.6

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

30

80
MMLU
30
79
GPQA
29
77
SuperGPQA
27
75
OpenBookQA
25
73
MMLU-Pro
54
14
HLE
5
72
FrontierScience
34

Instruction Following

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

86

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

70

86
IFEval
70

Multilingual

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

79.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

61.7

83
MGSM
63
78
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

DeepSeek Coder 2.0

80.5

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

47.8

81
AIME 2023
33
83
AIME 2024
35
82
AIME 2025
34
77
HMMT Feb 2023
29
79
HMMT Feb 2024
31
78
HMMT Feb 2025
30
80
BRUMO 2025
32
81
MATH-500
67

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 is ahead overall, 66 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HumanEval, where the scores are 82 and 24.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 59.6 versus 30. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 52.8 versus 15.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 80.5 versus 47.8. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 75.5 versus 42.1. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 67.5 versus 38.5. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 58.6 versus 33.4. Inside this category, OfficeQA Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 86 versus 70. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, DeepSeek Coder 2.0 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek Coder 2.0 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.8 versus 61.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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