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Llama 4 405B 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.

Updated

Llama 4 405B specs · Ministral 8B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× 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.

  • ModalitiesLlama 4 405B

    Llama 4 405B supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Ministral 8B.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance Llama 4 405B edges ahead, winning 2 of 5 categories against Ministral 8B's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 128K, 2.0× 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, Llama 4 405B handles text, vision while Ministral 8B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

Llama 4 405B is the newer of the two, released 6 months after Ministral 8B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. Llama 4 405B is usually picked for open source llm and fine tuning 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

SpecLlama 4 405BMinistral 8B
ProviderMetaMistral
ReleasedApr 2025Oct 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window256K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2024-12,
Open weightsYes (Llama 4 Community License)Yes (Mistral Research License)
API availableYesYes

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, vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, 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).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Llama 4 405BPricing unavailable
  • 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.

Benchmark scores not yet available. We only publish numbers we can source from official model cards or independent leaderboards, see methodology.
Pick Llama 4 405B if

Llama 4 405B fits when…

  • Strongest open-weight model at launch
  • Multimodal (text + vision)
  • Wide hosting availability
  • Long-context tasks, handles 256K tokens vs 128K for Ministral 8B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Ministral 8B if

Ministral 8B fits when…

  • Edge-optimized
  • Strong 8B-class quality
Don't want either?

Consider Llama 4 70B

Meta's mid-tier Llama 4, the practical workhorse for self-hosted deployments.

See Llama 4 70B specsLlama 4 405B vs Llama 4 70BMinistral 8B vs Llama 4 70B

Frequently asked

  • Is Llama 4 405B 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?
    Llama 4 405B accepts 256K tokens vs 128K for Ministral 8B.
  • Is Llama 4 405B or Ministral 8B better for coding?
    Both Llama 4 405B 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?
    Both ship with open weights. Llama 4 405B is licensed under Llama 4 Community License; Ministral 8B under Mistral Research License.
  • When were Llama 4 405B and Ministral 8B released?
    Llama 4 405B was released by Meta on 2025-04-05. Ministral 8B was released by Mistral on 2024-10-16.
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