ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-V3 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Mistral Small 3.2

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 50 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 14% cheaper per token.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3

    Released Dec 26, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI132.3
    • Price$0.32 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3
  2. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    71/100
    • ECI133.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and DeepSeek-V3 (50). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · DeepSeek-V3 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteDeepSeek-V3: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-V3 and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights (DeepSeek Model License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-V3Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%565855
Price25%648689
Inputs & features15%2510050
Context window10%246124
Overall100%50/10071/10060/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

DeepSeek-V3 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-V3DeepSeekGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)132.3133.9 (best)131.7
ECI rank#121 of 148#118 of 148 (best)#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.5% (best)—49.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics15.8%—30.3% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.32$0.10 (best)$0.10 (best)
Output$1.10$0.40$0.30 (best)
Cached input—$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.515$0.175$0.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 5 providersOfficial Google APIOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningNoYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenDeepSeek Model LicenseProprietaryOpen
API model ID—gemini-2.5-flash-litemistral-small-2506
API providers520 (best)6
ReleasedDec 26, 2024Jun 17, 2025Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 2025Mar 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • DeepSeek-V3$5.40
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-V3, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Mistral Small 3.2?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and DeepSeek-V3 (50). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price); DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.32 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.2× as much) and $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (3.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148), DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 127.5–135.5), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-V3, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3 and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek-V3 accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek-V3 and Mistral Small 3.2 publishes its weights (DeepSeek Model License) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025; DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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