Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $0.05 cheaper per 1M input tokens (33.3% lower; 1.5x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
NewPerceptron Mk1 vs Ministral 3 3B 2512
Pick Ministral 3 3B 2512 when budget and context both matter.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Ministral 3 3B 2512 when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ministral 3 3B 2512 is estimated at $0.15 vs $0.9 for Perceptron Mk1, saving $0.75 (83.3% lower).
Cost-first pickMinistral 3 3B 2512
Context-first pickMinistral 3 3B 2512
Sample savings$0.7583.3%
10x traffic gap$7.5
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $7.5. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Ministral 3 3B 2512 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Perceptron Mk1 | Ministral 3 3B 2512 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | $1.5 | $0.55 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | $1.65 | $0.2 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | $7.65 | $0.6 |
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $1.4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.3% lower; 15x difference).
Ministral 3 3B 2512 has 98.3K more context (4x larger).
Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $0.75 cheaper on the standard workload (83.3% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
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
Ministral 3 3B 2512 has the lower input price; Ministral 3 3B 2512 has the lower output price; Ministral 3 3B 2512 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 $0.9 for Perceptron Mk1 and $0.15 for Ministral 3 3B 2512.
Choose Perceptron Mk1 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
Choose Ministral 3 3B 2512 when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ministral 3 3B 2512 is estimated at $0.15 vs $0.9 for Perceptron Mk1, saving $0.75 (83.3% lower).
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $0.75 cheaper on the standard workload (83.3% lower).
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $0.05 cheaper per 1M input tokens (33.3% lower; 1.5x difference).
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 is $1.4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.3% lower; 15x difference).
- Ministral 3 3B 2512 has 98.3K more context (4x larger).
| Feature | NewPerceptron Mk1 (Perceptron) | Ministral 3 3B 2512 (Mistral) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.15 | $0.1 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $1.5 | $0.1 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.9 | $0.15 |
| Context Window | 32.77K | 131.07K |
| Release Date |
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 $0.9 for Perceptron Mk1, saving $0.75 (83.3% 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 | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- 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.
- 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.
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- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
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Open Mistral modelsPerceptron Mk1 (Mark One) is Perceptron's highest-quality vision-language model for video and embodied reasoning.** It accepts image and video inputs paired with natural language queries, and produces detailed visual understanding...
The smallest model in the Ministral 3 family, Ministral 3 3B is a powerful, efficient tiny language model with vision capabilities.