GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark vs Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

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

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 87 to 36. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 82.3 against 15.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Pro, 85 to 14.

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $8.00 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. GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning).

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

85.6

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

38.5

90
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
82
BrowseComp
41
83
OSWorld-Verified
36

Coding

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

82.3

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

15.2

91
HumanEval
24
80
SWE-bench Verified
17
80
LiveCodeBench
16
85
SWE-bench Pro
14

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

88.3

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

33.4

86
MMMU-Pro
28
91
OfficeQA Pro
40

Reasoning

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92.7

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

42.1

94
SimpleQA
32
92
MuSR
33
97
BBH
70
91
LongBench v2
44
92
MRCRv2
47

Knowledge

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

78.3

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

30

97
MMLU
30
95
GPQA
29
93
SuperGPQA
27
91
OpenBookQA
25
88
MMLU-Pro
54
42
HLE
5
88
FrontierScience
34

Instruction Following

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

92

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

70

92
IFEval
70

Multilingual

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

90.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

61.7

94
MGSM
63
89
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark

96.7

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

47.8

98
AIME 2023
33
98
AIME 2024
35
97
AIME 2025
34
94
HMMT Feb 2023
29
96
HMMT Feb 2024
31
95
HMMT Feb 2025
30
95
BRUMO 2025
32
98
MATH-500
67

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark is ahead overall, 87 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Pro, where the scores are 85 and 14.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 30. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 82.3 versus 15.2. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 96.7 versus 47.8. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.7 versus 42.1. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 85.6 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, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.3 versus 33.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 92 versus 70. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 90.8 versus 61.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

Weekly LLM Benchmark Digest

Get notified when new models drop, benchmark scores change, or the leaderboard shifts. One email per week.

Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. We only store derived location metadata for consent routing.