The closest alternative to Ministral 3 8B 2512 is Nemotron Nano 9B V2 (free) — comparable intelligence (14.8 vs 14.8); for a cheaper option, MiMo-V2.5 runs $0.140/M vs $0.150/M; for more speed, Mercury 2 hits 590 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
Nemotron Nano 9B V2 (free) is the closest alternative to Ministral 3 8B 2512, with an Intelligence Index of 14.8 (Ministral 3 8B 2512 scores 14.8) at Free per million input tokens.
Yes — MiMo-V2.5 costs $0.140 per million input tokens versus $0.150 for Ministral 3 8B 2512, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Ministral 3 8B 2512 — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.