GPT-5.2 Instant vs Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

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

GPT-5.2 Instant is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 85 to 31. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.2 Instant's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 75.5 against 7.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 98 to 25.

GPT-5.2 Instant is also the more expensive model on tokens at $1.50 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning). That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.2 Instant if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

79.6

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

34

83
Terminal-Bench 2.0
33
82
BrowseComp
37
74
OSWorld-Verified
33

Coding

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

75.5

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

7.2

87
HumanEval
16
75
SWE-bench Verified
9
74
LiveCodeBench
8
77
SWE-bench Pro
6

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

93.1

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

30.4

94
MMMU-Pro
25
92
OfficeQA Pro
37

Reasoning

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

90.9

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

35.3

95
SimpleQA
26
93
MuSR
26
96
BBH
63
89
LongBench v2
37
84
MRCRv2
40

Knowledge

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

79.8

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

25.2

98
MMLU
25
97
GPQA
24
95
SuperGPQA
22
93
OpenBookQA
20
88
MMLU-Pro
49
43
HLE
1
91
FrontierScience
29

Instruction Following

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

95

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

68

95
IFEval
68

Multilingual

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

94.4

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

59.7

95
MGSM
61
94
MMLU-ProX
59

Mathematics

GPT-5.2 Instant

GPT-5.2 Instant

97.2

Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)

40.9

99
AIME 2023
27
99
AIME 2024
29
98
AIME 2025
28
95
HMMT Feb 2023
23
97
HMMT Feb 2024
25
96
HMMT Feb 2025
24
96
BRUMO 2025
26
98
MATH-500
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant is ahead overall, 85 to 31. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 98 and 25.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.8 versus 25.2. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 75.5 versus 7.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97.2 versus 40.9. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 90.9 versus 35.3. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.6 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, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 93.1 versus 30.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 95 versus 68. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.2 Instant or Ministral 3 3B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.2 Instant has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 94.4 versus 59.7. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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