Mistral Large 3 vs Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

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

Mistral Large 3 is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 61 to 36. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Mistral Large 3's sharpest advantage is in multimodal & grounded, where it averages 75.5 against 33.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMMU-Pro, 75 to 28.

Mistral Large 3 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $6.00 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. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) is the reasoning model in the pair, while Mistral Large 3 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 Mistral Large 3 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

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

52.5

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

38.5

52
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
58
BrowseComp
41
49
OSWorld-Verified
36

Coding

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

41

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

15.2

68
HumanEval
24
45
SWE-bench Verified
17
39
LiveCodeBench
16
42
SWE-bench Pro
14

Multimodal & Grounded

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

75.5

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

33.4

75
MMMU-Pro
28
76
OfficeQA Pro
40

Reasoning

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

70.6

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

42.1

73
SimpleQA
32
71
MuSR
33
81
BBH
70
67
LongBench v2
44
67
MRCRv2
47

Knowledge

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

57.1

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

30

76
MMLU
30
75
GPQA
29
73
SuperGPQA
27
71
OpenBookQA
25
74
MMLU-Pro
54
12
HLE
5
67
FrontierScience
34

Instruction Following

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

83

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

70

83
IFEval
70

Multilingual

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

78.8

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

61.7

82
MGSM
63
77
MMLU-ProX
61

Mathematics

Mistral Large 3

Mistral Large 3

77.3

Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)

47.8

76
AIME 2023
33
78
AIME 2024
35
77
AIME 2025
34
72
HMMT Feb 2023
29
74
HMMT Feb 2024
31
73
HMMT Feb 2025
30
75
BRUMO 2025
32
80
MATH-500
67

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 is ahead overall, 61 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMMU-Pro, where the scores are 75 and 28.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 57.1 versus 30. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 41 versus 15.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 77.3 versus 47.8. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 70.6 versus 42.1. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 52.5 versus 38.5. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 75.5 versus 33.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 83 versus 70. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, Mistral Large 3 or Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)?

Mistral Large 3 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.8 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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