Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Ministral 8B
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
- PriceClaude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude 3.5 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Ministral 8B does not.
- Context windowClaude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesClaude 3.5 Sonnet
Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Ministral 8B.
- OpennessMinistral 8B
Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.
On balance Claude 3.5 Sonnet edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Ministral 8B's 1. Claude 3.5 Sonnet publishes pricing ($15.00 / 1M output tokens) while Ministral 8B does not. Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Claude 3.5 Sonnet handles text, vision while Ministral 8B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License); Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.
Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2024, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is usually picked for coding llm and code review workloads, while Ministral 8B sees more deployments in edge deployment and on device. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | Ministral 8B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Mistral |
| Released | Oct 2024 | Oct 2024 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Context window | 200K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | $3.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Output · 1M | $15.00 / 1M tokens | Pricing not published |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | , |
| Open weights | No | Yes (Mistral Research License) |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$31.50 vs ,
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$315 vs ,
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$540 vs ,
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet$1.05
- Ministral 8BPricing unavailable
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- HumanEval92.0
Claude 3.5 Sonnet fits when…
- Mature and battle-tested
- Strong code
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Ministral 8B.
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
Ministral 8B fits when…
- Edge-optimized
- Strong 8B-class quality
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Mistral Research License).
Consider Claude Opus 4.7
Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.
Frequently asked
Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Ministral 8B cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.Which has the larger context window?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Ministral 8B.Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Ministral 8B better for coding?
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 8B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
Ministral 8B ships open weights (Mistral Research License). Claude 3.5 Sonnet is API-only.When were Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Ministral 8B released?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released by Anthropic on 2024-10-22. Ministral 8B was released by Mistral on 2024-10-16.
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