DeepSeek V3.2 vs Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

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

DeepSeek V3.2 is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 64 to 31. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

DeepSeek V3.2's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 82.1 against 40.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HumanEval, 76 to 16.

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning) is the reasoning model in the pair, while DeepSeek V3.2 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 V3.2 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Agentic

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

58.8

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

34

60
Terminal-Bench 2.0
33
62
BrowseComp
37
55
OSWorld-Verified
33

Coding

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

43.2

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

7.2

76
HumanEval
16
45
SWE-bench Verified
9
39
LiveCodeBench
8
47
SWE-bench Pro
6

Multimodal & Grounded

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

66

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

30.4

61
MMMU-Pro
25
72
OfficeQA Pro
37

Reasoning

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

75.3

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

35.3

81
SimpleQA
26
79
MuSR
26
81
BBH
63
69
LongBench v2
37
70
MRCRv2
40

Knowledge

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

60

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

25.2

84
MMLU
25
83
GPQA
24
81
SuperGPQA
22
79
OpenBookQA
20
73
MMLU-Pro
49
11
HLE
1
72
FrontierScience
29

Instruction Following

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

85

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

68

85
IFEval
68

Multilingual

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

82.1

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

59.7

84
MGSM
61
81
MMLU-ProX
59

Mathematics

DeepSeek V3.2

DeepSeek V3.2

82.1

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

40.9

84
AIME 2023
27
86
AIME 2024
29
85
AIME 2025
28
80
HMMT Feb 2023
23
82
HMMT Feb 2024
25
81
HMMT Feb 2025
24
83
BRUMO 2025
26
81
MATH-500
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 is ahead overall, 64 to 31. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HumanEval, where the scores are 76 and 16.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60 versus 25.2. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 43.2 versus 7.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 40.9. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 75.3 versus 35.3. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 58.8 versus 34. 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 V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66 versus 30.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 85 versus 68. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, DeepSeek V3.2 or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

DeepSeek V3.2 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.1 versus 59.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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