Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) vs Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) is the pick when you need reasoning / thinking mode, Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) when cost matters at scale.

Key numbers

SpecGoogle: Gemma 4 31B (batch)Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)
ProviderGoogleMistral AI
Input price (per 1M tokens)$0.39$0.07
Output price (per 1M tokens)$0.97$0.07
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$0.53$0.07
Cheaper than … of all models we track52%84%
Context window262K tokens (~393 pages)262K tokens (~393 pages)
Larger context than … of all models48%48%
Max output per response236K tokens (~176,900 words)210K tokens (~157,300 words)
Input typesimage, text, videotext, image
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2026-04-022025-12-02
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch)Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)Difference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$48.65$7.13Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) saves $41.52
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$56.50$9.75Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) saves $46.75
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$58.44$9.90Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) saves $48.54
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$37.02$6.45Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) saves $30.57
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$20.47$3.82Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) saves $16.64

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityGoogle: Gemma 4 31B (batch)Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)What it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes✓ Yescall your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)✓ Yes✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode✓ Yes—spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes✓ Yesread screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input——accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search——answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)—✓ Yesrepeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities——read token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

DateModelInput / 1MOutput / 1M
2026-09-10Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)$0.07$0.07

Which should you choose?

Choose Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) if…

  • you need reasoning / thinking mode — to spend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems; Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) does not advertise it
  • you want the newer model — released 2026-04-02, 4 months after the other

Choose Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 86% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($7.13 vs $48.65 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) does not advertise it

Frequently asked questions

Is Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) better than Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)?

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) is the pick when you need reasoning / thinking mode, Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) when cost matters at scale. In short: Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) when you need reasoning / thinking mode, you want the newer model; Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) when cost matters at scale, you need seed (reproducible sampling).

Which is cheaper, Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) or Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)?

Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) is cheaper: $0.07 vs $0.53 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 86% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $7.13 against $48.65.

How much do Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) cost per million tokens?

Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) costs $0.39 per 1M input tokens and $0.97 per 1M output tokens; Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) costs $0.07 input and $0.07 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) or Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)?

Both take 262K tokens per request — roughly 393 pages of text.

Do Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch): yes, Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch): yes. JSON-schema structured output — Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch): yes, Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch): yes.

Can Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) or Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) read images?

Yes, both accept image input.

Is Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) or Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) free to use?

No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.

What is the maximum output length of Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch)?

Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) can write up to 236K tokens (about 176,900 words) per response; Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) up to 210K (about 157,300 words).

When were Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) and Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) released?

Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) was listed on 2026-04-02; Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) on 2025-12-02.

Has the price of Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) or Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) changed?

Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch): price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-08-29. Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch): input price cut 50% ($0.15 → $0.07/1M), output price cut 50% ($0.15 → $0.07/1M) on 2026-09-10.

About the two models

Compare Google: Gemma 4 31B (batch) with other models

Compare Mistral: Ministral 3 8B 2512 (batch) with other models

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