Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66, Qwen3 30B A3B 57). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
67/100- ECI133.8
- Price$0.12 / $0.48
- Context1.05M
- Google
Gemini 2.5 Flash
66/100- ECI140.6
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 30B A3B
57/100- ECI136.2
- Price$0.108 / $0.475
- Context131K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3 30B A3B 57/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemini 2.5 Flash for raw capability and Qwen3 30B A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 2.5 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 · Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8
- Lowest priceQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 30B A3B $0.20 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 $0.21 · Gemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 30B A3B: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3 30B A3BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 57 | 65 | 59 |
| Price | 25% | 79 | 51 | 80 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 100 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 61 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 67/100 | 66/100 | 57/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Google | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.8 | 140.6 (best) | 136.2 |
| ECI rank | #132 of 165 | #110 of 165 (best) | #126 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | — | 61.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | — | 62.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.12 | $0.30 | $0.108 (best) |
| Output | $0.48 | $2.50 | $0.475 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.21 | $0.85 | $0.20 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 2 providers | Official Google API | Median of 14 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | Yes | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | gemini-2.5-flash | — |
| API providers | 2 | 32 (best) | 14 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Apr 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Jan 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
- Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
- Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3 30B A3B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3 30B A3B 57/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemini 2.5 Flash for raw capability and Qwen3 30B A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3 30B A3B?
Qwen3 30B A3B is cheaper at $0.108 input / $0.475 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 costs $0.12 input / $0.48 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.20 per million tokens for Qwen3 30B A3B versus $0.21 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 (1× as much) and $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash (4.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 2.5 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165), Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 (#126 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (138.4–142.1 vs 130.8–138.5), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, Gemini 2.5 Flash and Qwen3 30B A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash 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 Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 Flash have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 131,072 for Qwen3 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 30B A3B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 30B A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash came out Jun 17, 2025; Qwen3 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 Jan 2025, Gemini 2.5 Flash Jan 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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