Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 vs Kimi K2.6
At a Glance
| Compare |  Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512Mistral AI |  Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence, Cost, and Efficiency | ||
| IntelligenceHigher is better · MM Intelligence v2.5 | UnrankedNot in the 46-model eligible cohort | #32 of 4650.5 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 33.6–67.0 |
| CostLower is better · Published-token output estimate | UnrankedNot in the 44-model eligible cohort | #21 of 44$0.095 per LiveBench case |
| EfficiencyHigher is better · MM Efficiency v1.5 | UnrankedNot in the 38-model eligible cohort | #24 of 3850.1 score · 2/3 sources · provisional · missing ARC-AGI-2 · full-core range 41.7–58.4 |
| Pricing and Limits | ||
| Input priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $0.10Openrouter ↗ · Aug 29, 2026 | $0.75Deepinfra ↗ · Sep 22, 2026 |
| Output priceFrom · USD / 1M tokens | $0.10Openrouter ↗ · Aug 29, 2026 | $3.50Deepinfra ↗ · Sep 22, 2026 |
| Context windowMaximum documented tokens | 262K | 262K |
| Model facts checked | Aug 28, 2026View model evidence → | Aug 28, 2026View model evidence → |
Token prices are the lowest available sourced USD rates; input and output may use different providers. Cost ranking estimates output spend on LiveBench, not a full request bill. Ranking methodology →
Available Benchmarks
Side-by-Side Facts
| Field | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512 | Kimi-K2.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Mistral AI | Moonshot AI |
| Family | Ministral 3 3b Instruct 2512 | Kimi K2 6 |
| Model | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512 | Kimi-K2.6 |
| Version | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512 | Kimi-K2.6 |
| Lifecycle | active | active |
| Released | Unknown | 2026-04-20 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Unknown | Unknown |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
| Output modalities | Text | Text |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Total parameters | 3.8B | 1T |
| Active parameters | Unknown | 32B |
| License | apache-2.0 | other |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Provider access | Openrouter (Standard) | Deepinfra (Standard), Fireworks Ai (Standard), Hugging Face (Standard), Openrouter (Standard), Together Ai (Standard) |
| Capabilities | chat, generation, tools | chat, generation, reasoning, tools |
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 Capabilities
Kimi K2.6 Capabilities
Related Comparisons
All image comparisons →| A | Pair | B | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | vs |  GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | vs | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle DeepMind | vs | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | cross-developer peerstext |
 DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek | vs | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | vs | Grok 4.6xAI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | vs |  Qwen3.8-MaxQwen | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | vs | Kimi-K3Moonshot AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
 MiniMax-M3MiniMax | vs | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | vs |  GLM-5.3Z.ai | cross-developer peerstext |
Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | vs |  Hy4 previewTencent | cross-developer peerstext |
Seed 2.1 ProByteDance Seed | vs | Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | cross-developer peersimage, text |
Ministral-3-3B-Instruct-2512Mistral AI | vs | Mistral Large 3Mistral AI | developer peersimage, text |
Primary Evidence
Sources and Freshness
Questions
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 vs Kimi K2.6 FAQs
Is Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6 better for coding?+
This comparison does not currently contain a protocol-matched coding benchmark for both Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 and Kimi K2.6, so Model Markets cannot name a coding leader from pricing, context size, or capability labels alone.
Which is cheaper, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6?+
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is $0.10 and Kimi K2.6 is $0.75 per million tokens, so Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is cheaper on this metric. Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is $0.10 and Kimi K2.6 is $3.50 per million tokens, so Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is cheaper on this metric.
Which has a larger context window, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6?+
Neither model has a larger sourced context window in this comparison. Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is 262K and Kimi K2.6 is 262K.
Which performs better in benchmarks, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6?+
There is no overall benchmark winner: At least two independently verified, protocol-matched benchmarks are required for an overall winner.
Can Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6 be self-hosted?+
Both models have the same recorded self-hosting status: supported. Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is open weight; Kimi K2.6 is open weight.
Can Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 and Kimi K2.6 understand images?+
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is documented with image input; Kimi K2.6 is documented with image input. This reflects supported input modalities, not vision quality.
Which can generate longer answers, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6?+
Neither has a larger sourced maximum output. Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 is — and Kimi K2.6 is —.
Do Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 and Kimi K2.6 support reasoning and tool use?+
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512: tool calling and image input. Kimi K2.6: reasoning, tool calling, and image input. Feature support does not establish relative quality.
Which is available from more inference providers, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6?+
Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 has 1 sourced provider route; Kimi K2.6 has 5, so Kimi K2.6 has broader tracked availability.
Which offers better value, Ministral 3 3B Instruct 2512 or Kimi K2.6?+
There is no universal value winner. Compare the input and output prices above with the matched benchmark result for your workload: cheaper tokens can be offset by different quality, token usage, latency, or provider availability.