Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Ministral 3 8B

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

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 53 to 32. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite's sharpest advantage is in multimodal & grounded, where it averages 73.1 against 32.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMMU-Pro, 74 to 27.

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Ministral 3 8B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for Ministral 3 8B.

Quick Verdict

Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 8B only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

49.2

Ministral 3 8B

28.9

47
Terminal-Bench 2.0
26
60
BrowseComp
36
44
OSWorld-Verified
27

Coding

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

24.7

Ministral 3 8B

14.2

55
HumanEval
23
22
SWE-bench Verified
16
21
LiveCodeBench
15
29
SWE-bench Pro
13

Multimodal & Grounded

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

73.1

Ministral 3 8B

32.4

74
MMMU-Pro
27
72
OfficeQA Pro
39

Reasoning

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

65.8

Ministral 3 8B

36.1

60
SimpleQA
28
58
MuSR
26
74
BBH
63
69
LongBench v2
38
73
MRCRv2
41

Knowledge

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

45.3

Ministral 3 8B

28

63
MMLU
28
62
GPQA
27
60
SuperGPQA
25
58
OpenBookQA
23
63
MMLU-Pro
52
1
HLE
3
55
FrontierScience
32

Instruction Following

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

79

Ministral 3 8B

69

79
IFEval
69

Multilingual

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

69.8

Ministral 3 8B

61.7

73
MGSM
63
68
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

66.1

Ministral 3 8B

43.3

63
AIME 2023
30
65
AIME 2024
32
64
AIME 2025
33
59
HMMT Feb 2023
26
61
HMMT Feb 2024
28
60
HMMT Feb 2025
27
62
BRUMO 2025
29
71
MATH-500
60

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is ahead overall, 53 to 32. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMMU-Pro, where the scores are 74 and 27.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 45.3 versus 28. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 24.7 versus 14.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 66.1 versus 43.3. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 65.8 versus 36.1. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 49.2 versus 28.9. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 73.1 versus 32.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 79 versus 69. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or Ministral 3 8B?

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 69.8 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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