Ministral 14B (Dec '25) (non-reasoning)

High-performance, open-weight model

Ministral 14B (Dec '25) (non-reasoning)

Ministral 14B (Dec '25) offers a compelling blend of high intelligence and impressive speed, positioning it as a strong contender for demanding generative AI workloads, albeit with a slightly higher cost profile.

Text & Image InputText Output256k ContextOpen LicenseMistral AIHigh Intelligence

The Ministral 14B (Dec '25) model emerges as a significant player in the landscape of large language models, particularly for applications requiring robust performance without the complexities of reasoning-specific architectures. Developed by Mistral, this model distinguishes itself with a high intelligence score and remarkable processing speed, making it suitable for a wide array of generative tasks. Its open-weight license further enhances its appeal, offering flexibility and control for developers and enterprises.

Scoring an impressive 31 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Ministral 14B (Dec '25) significantly surpasses the average performance of comparable models, which typically hover around 20. This places it firmly among the top performers in its class, indicating a strong capability for understanding, generating, and processing complex information. While its intelligence is a clear strength, the model's evaluation process revealed a tendency towards verbosity, generating 19 million tokens during testing compared to an average of 13 million, which can impact downstream processing and storage.

Beyond its intellectual prowess, Ministral 14B (Dec '25) boasts exceptional speed, clocking in at an average of 148 tokens per second. This makes it one of the fastest models available, a critical factor for real-time applications and high-throughput environments. This speed, combined with its 256k token context window, allows for extensive and complex interactions, from long-form content generation to detailed document analysis.

From a cost perspective, Ministral 14B (Dec '25) is positioned in the mid-to-upper range for non-reasoning models of its size. With an input token price of $0.20 per 1 million tokens and an output token price also at $0.20 per 1 million tokens, it is considered expensive for input and moderately priced for output when compared to industry averages of $0.10 and $0.20 respectively. The total evaluation cost for the Intelligence Index was $14.96, reflecting its premium performance. Despite the cost, its blend of intelligence and speed often justifies the investment for mission-critical applications.

Scoreboard

Intelligence

31 (#7 / 55)

Well above average for comparable models (average: 20), indicating strong generative and comprehension capabilities.
Output speed

147.9 tokens/s

Notably fast, ranking among the top 10 models for raw output throughput.
Input price

$0.20 per 1M tokens

Considered expensive (average: $0.10), ranking #42/55.
Output price

$0.20 per 1M tokens

Moderately priced (average: $0.20), ranking #27/55.
Verbosity signal

19M tokens

Somewhat verbose compared to the average of 13M tokens generated during intelligence evaluation.
Provider latency

0.29 s

Achieved by Mistral's native API, offering industry-leading time to first token.

Technical specifications

Spec Details
Model Name Ministral 14B (Dec '25)
Owner Mistral
License Open
Model Type Non-Reasoning
Context Window 256k tokens
Input Modalities Text, Image
Output Modalities Text
Intelligence Index Score 31 (Rank #7/55)
Average Output Speed 147.9 tokens/s (Rank #10/55)
Input Token Price $0.20 / 1M tokens (Rank #42/55)
Output Token Price $0.20 / 1M tokens (Rank #27/55)
Verbosity (Intelligence Index) 19M tokens (Rank #25/55)
Lowest Latency (TTFT) 0.29s (via Mistral API)

What stands out beyond the scoreboard

Where this model wins
  • Exceptional Intelligence: Scores 31 on the Intelligence Index, significantly outperforming the average and placing it among the top models for complex tasks.
  • Blazing Fast Output: With an average of 147.9 tokens/s, it's ideal for applications demanding high throughput and rapid content generation.
  • Generous Context Window: A 256k token context window supports extensive conversations, detailed document analysis, and long-form content creation.
  • Multimodal Input Capability: Supports both text and image inputs, expanding its utility for diverse applications like visual content understanding and generation.
  • Open-Weight Flexibility: The open license provides unparalleled control, allowing for fine-tuning, local deployment, and integration into proprietary systems.
Where costs sneak up
  • Higher Input Price: At $0.20/1M tokens, its input cost is double the average, which can accumulate quickly for applications with large input prompts or extensive context.
  • Potential for Verbosity: While intelligent, its tendency to generate more tokens (19M vs. 13M average) can lead to higher output costs and increased processing overhead.
  • Provider-Specific Latency: While Mistral's native API offers low latency, other providers like Amazon Bedrock show higher TTFT (0.60s), which can impact real-time user experiences.
  • Evaluation Cost: The $14.96 cost to evaluate on the Intelligence Index suggests a premium pricing tier, which might be a consideration for budget-sensitive projects.
  • Resource Demands for Local Deployment: As a 14B parameter model, deploying it locally or on private infrastructure will require substantial computational resources, impacting operational costs.

Provider pick

Choosing the right API provider for Ministral 14B (Dec '25) depends heavily on your primary performance objectives. While both Mistral and Amazon Bedrock offer competitive pricing, their performance profiles differ significantly in terms of latency and raw output speed.

Priority Pick Why Tradeoff to accept
Priority Pick Why Tradeoff
Lowest Latency (TTFT) Mistral Achieves the lowest Time to First Token (0.29s), crucial for interactive applications. Slightly lower peak output speed (148 t/s) compared to Amazon.
Maximum Output Speed Amazon Bedrock Offers the highest output tokens per second (172 t/s), ideal for high-throughput batch processing. Higher latency (0.60s TTFT) than Mistral's native offering.
Cost-Optimized Mistral or Amazon Bedrock Both providers offer identical blended pricing ($0.20/1M tokens) for input and output. No direct cost tradeoff between these two providers; choose based on performance needs.
Balanced Performance Mistral Provides an excellent balance of low latency, competitive output speed, and identical pricing. Not the absolute fastest for raw token generation, but offers a more responsive experience.
Enterprise Integration Amazon Bedrock Leverages the broader AWS ecosystem for seamless integration with other cloud services and robust enterprise features. May introduce additional complexity or vendor lock-in for non-AWS users.

Note: Pricing and performance data are based on benchmarks at the time of analysis (Dec '25) and may vary with future updates or specific regional deployments.

Real workloads cost table

Understanding the real-world cost implications of Ministral 14B (Dec '25) requires examining typical usage scenarios. The model's pricing structure of $0.20 per 1 million input tokens and $0.20 per 1 million output tokens means that costs scale directly with token usage, making efficient prompt engineering and response handling crucial.

Scenario Input Output What it represents Estimated cost
Scenario Input (tokens) Output (tokens) What it represents Estimated Cost
Short Q&A / Chat Turn 500 100 A concise user query and a brief, direct answer. $0.00012
Summarizing a Document 100,000 5,000 Processing a medium-sized document (approx. 75 pages) and generating a summary. $0.021
Code Generation / Refactoring 2,000 1,000 Providing context for a code snippet and generating or modifying a function. $0.0006
Long-Form Content Creation 5,000 15,000 Generating a detailed article or report from a brief outline. $0.004
Multimodal Image Captioning 1,000 (text equivalent) 200 Describing an image based on visual input and a short prompt. $0.00024
Customer Support Bot (Complex) 10,000 2,000 Handling a multi-turn customer interaction with detailed context. $0.0024

For Ministral 14B (Dec '25), costs are highly sensitive to both input context length and output verbosity. Optimizing prompt design and managing response lengths are key strategies to control expenses, especially in high-volume applications.

How to control cost (a practical playbook)

To effectively manage costs while leveraging the high performance of Ministral 14B (Dec '25), a strategic approach to model interaction and deployment is essential. Given its premium pricing for input tokens and potential for verbosity, careful optimization can yield significant savings.

Optimize Prompt Engineering

The input token price of Ministral 14B (Dec '25) is higher than average, making efficient prompt design critical. Every token sent to the model incurs a cost, so reducing unnecessary context can lead to substantial savings over time.

  • Concise Instructions: Be direct and clear with instructions, avoiding verbose or redundant phrasing.
  • Context Management: Implement strategies to dynamically manage context windows, only including relevant historical turns or document snippets.
  • Few-Shot Learning: Use few-shot examples judiciously. While effective, they add to input token count. Consider if zero-shot or fine-tuning is more cost-effective for repetitive tasks.
  • Pre-processing: Filter or summarize user inputs before sending them to the model to reduce the overall token count.
Manage Output Verbosity

Ministral 14B (Dec '25) has shown a tendency to be somewhat verbose. While this can be beneficial for detailed responses, it directly impacts output token costs. Controlling the length and detail of generated text is a key cost-saving measure.

  • Explicit Length Constraints: Include clear instructions in your prompts regarding desired output length (e.g., "Summarize in 3 sentences," "Provide a concise answer").
  • Post-processing: Implement server-side logic to truncate or summarize model outputs if they exceed a certain length or contain extraneous information.
  • Iterative Refinement: For complex tasks, consider breaking them into smaller steps, generating shorter, focused outputs at each stage rather than one very long, comprehensive response.
  • Temperature and Top-P Tuning: Experiment with generation parameters to influence output style and length, potentially reducing verbosity without sacrificing quality.
Strategic Provider Selection

While both Mistral and Amazon Bedrock offer identical blended pricing for Ministral 14B (Dec '25), their performance characteristics differ. Aligning your provider choice with your application's primary needs can optimize overall system efficiency and perceived cost.

  • Latency-Sensitive Applications: For real-time user-facing applications where responsiveness is paramount, prioritize Mistral's native API for its lowest Time to First Token (0.29s).
  • High-Throughput Batch Processing: If your workload involves processing large volumes of data where raw speed is key, Amazon Bedrock's higher output tokens per second (172 t/s) might be more advantageous.
  • Existing Cloud Ecosystem: If you are already heavily invested in the AWS ecosystem, using Amazon Bedrock can simplify integration, billing, and infrastructure management, potentially reducing operational overhead.
  • Redundancy and Failover: Consider a multi-provider strategy for critical applications to ensure resilience, though this adds complexity.
Leverage Caching Mechanisms

For repetitive queries or frequently accessed information, implementing a robust caching layer can significantly reduce API calls to Ministral 14B (Dec '25), directly impacting costs and improving response times.

  • Response Caching: Store model outputs for common or identical prompts. Before making an API call, check the cache for a relevant pre-generated response.
  • Semantic Caching: For prompts that are semantically similar but not identical, consider using embedding-based search to retrieve relevant cached responses.
  • Time-to-Live (TTL): Implement appropriate TTLs for cached responses, balancing freshness of information with cost savings.
  • Invalidation Strategies: Define clear rules for when cached responses should be invalidated (e.g., source data changes, model updates).

FAQ

What makes Ministral 14B (Dec '25) stand out in terms of intelligence?

Ministral 14B (Dec '25) achieves an Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index score of 31, placing it significantly above the average of 20 for comparable models. This indicates a superior capability in understanding complex prompts, generating coherent and relevant text, and performing various cognitive tasks, making it highly effective for demanding applications.

How does its speed compare to other models?

The model is notably fast, with an average output speed of 147.9 tokens per second. This performance ranks it among the top 10 models for raw throughput, making it an excellent choice for applications requiring rapid content generation, real-time responses, or processing large volumes of data efficiently.

Is Ministral 14B (Dec '25) expensive to use?

Its pricing is $0.20 per 1 million input tokens and $0.20 per 1 million output tokens. While the output price is moderately aligned with the average, the input price is considered expensive (double the average). This means that applications with large input contexts or high query volumes will incur higher costs, necessitating careful prompt optimization.

What are its input and output capabilities?

Ministral 14B (Dec '25) is a multimodal model, supporting both text and image inputs. This allows it to process and understand information from various sources. Its primary output modality is text, enabling it to generate human-like language for a wide range of applications, from creative writing to factual summaries.

What is the significance of its 256k context window?

A 256k token context window is exceptionally large, allowing the model to maintain a very long memory of previous interactions or process extensive documents in a single pass. This is crucial for applications like long-form content generation, detailed document analysis, complex multi-turn conversations, and maintaining deep contextual understanding over extended periods.

What does 'open license' mean for this model?

An open license for Ministral 14B (Dec '25) means that developers and organizations have greater freedom to use, modify, and distribute the model. This typically allows for fine-tuning the model on proprietary datasets, deploying it on private infrastructure for enhanced data privacy, and integrating it deeply into custom applications without restrictive commercial terms.

How does verbosity impact its usage?

The model's tendency to be somewhat verbose (generating 19M tokens during evaluation compared to an average of 13M) means it might produce longer responses than strictly necessary. This can lead to higher output token costs and potentially increased processing time for downstream applications. Users should employ prompt engineering techniques to guide the model towards more concise outputs when desired.


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