API cost decision in 10 seconds

Ministral 3 3B 2512 vs R1

Pick Ministral 3 3B 2512 for lower cost; pick R1 only if the larger context window matters more.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T15:08:08Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-26T19:08:13Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Ministral 3 3B 2512 for lower cost; pick R1 only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ministral 3 3B 2512 is estimated at $0.15 vs $1.95 for R1, saving $1.8 (92.3% lower).

Cost-first pickMinistral 3 3B 2512

Context-first pickR1

Sample savings$1.892.3%

10x traffic gap$18

R1 has more context, but Ministral 3 3B 2512 saves $1.8 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $18. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Ministral 3 3B 2512 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Ministral 3 3B 2512	R1
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Ministral 3 3B 2512	$0.55	$4.75
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Ministral 3 3B 2512	$0.2	$3.2
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Ministral 3 3B 2512	$0.6	$13.2

Cheaper input Ministral 3 3B 2512 $0.1 vs $0.7 / 1M

Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $0.6 cheaper per 1M input tokens (85.7% lower; 7x difference).

Cheaper output Ministral 3 3B 2512 $0.1 vs $2.5 / 1M

Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $2.4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (96% lower; 25x difference).

Larger context R1 131.07K vs 163.84K

R1 has 32.77K more context (1.25x larger).

Sample workload Ministral 3 3B 2512 $0.15 vs $1.95

Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $1.8 cheaper on the standard workload (92.3% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Ministral 3 3B 2512 Calculating… Estimated API cost

R1 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Ministral 3 3B 2512 has the lower input price; Ministral 3 3B 2512 has the lower output price; R1 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Ministral 3 3B 2512 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.15 for Ministral 3 3B 2512 and $1.95 for R1.

Best Fit

Choose Ministral 3 3B 2512 when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Choose R1 when you care most about larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ministral 3 3B 2512 is estimated at $0.15 vs $1.95 for R1, saving $1.8 (92.3% lower).
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $1.8 cheaper on the standard workload (92.3% lower).
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $0.6 cheaper per 1M input tokens (85.7% lower; 7x difference).
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $2.4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (96% lower; 25x difference).
R1 has 32.77K more context (1.25x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Ministral 3 3B 2512 (Mistral)	R1 (DeepSeek)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.1	$0.7
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.1	$2.5
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.15	$1.95
Context Window	131.07K	163.84K
Release Date	2025-12-02	2025-01-20
Popularity	#130	#144

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Ministral 3 3B 2512	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ministral 3 3B 2512 is estimated at $0.15 vs $1.95 for R1, saving $1.8 (92.3% lower).
High-volume input processing	Ministral 3 3B 2512	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Ministral 3 3B 2512	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	R1	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Mistral Nemo can replace Ministral 3 3B 2512 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.04.
Mistral Small 3 can replace Ministral 3 3B 2512 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.
DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) can replace R1 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
DeepSeek V4 Flash can replace R1 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.2.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.87 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Mistral catalog

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DeepSeek catalog

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Ministral 3 3B 2512

The smallest model in the Ministral 3 family, Ministral 3 3B is a powerful, efficient tiny language model with vision capabilities.

DeepSeek R1 is here: Performance on par with [OpenAI o1](/openai/o1), but open-sourced and with fully open reasoning tokens. It's 671B parameters in size, with 37B active in an inference pass....