Verdict
Built from the measurements below
- Ministral 3 8B 2512 is more accurate: 42.5% against 26.2% on the same 80 questions, a 16.2-point gap that is statistically significant.
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 is 1.4× cheaper per question as billed ($0.00019 vs $0.00027), reasoning tokens included.
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 generates text 2.0× faster: 252 tokens per second against 124.
- Ministral 3 8B 2512 accepts more context: 262k tokens against 131k.
Which should you choose?
Choose Ministral 3 3B 2512 for faster streaming. Choose Ministral 3 8B 2512 for the most accurate answers of the two, the lower cost per correct answer ($0.00063 against $0.00074) and a 262k-token context window. The widest subject gap is in economics: Ministral 3 8B 2512 answered 7 of 9 correctly, Ministral 3 3B 2512 4 of 9. With so few questions per subject, treat this as a lead to test on your own prompts, not a result.
Accuracy gap -16.2 points (z = -2.16). We call a winner only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.