ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Magistral Small

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 59 and 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    67/100
    • ECI133.8
    • Price$0.12 / $0.48
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17

  2. OpenAI

    GPT-4.1 mini

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    59/100
    • ECI134.9
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1 mini

  3. Mistral AI

    Magistral Small

    Released Jun 10, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI133.1
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Magistral Small
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (59) and Magistral Small (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-4.1 miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 · Magistral Small 133.1
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 $0.21 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Magistral Small $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 miniGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · GPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Magistral Small 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Magistral Small: Text
  • Self-hostingMagistral SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GPT-4.1 miniMagistral Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%575856
Price25%795553
Inputs & features15%907035
Context window10%616125
Overall100%67/10059/10049/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Magistral Small specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GoogleGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIMagistral SmallMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.8134.9 (best)133.1
ECI rank#132 of 165#129 of 165 (best)#134 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—65.9% (best)56.1%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—44.7% (best)30.0%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—12.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.12 (best)$0.40$0.50
Output$0.48 (best)$1.60$1.50
Cached input—$0.10—
Blended (3:1)$0.21 (best)$0.70$0.75
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,047,576 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsYesYesNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpenApache 2.0
API model ID—gpt-4.1-mini—
API providers228 (best)2
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Apr 14, 2025Jun 10, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025Apr 2024—
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.

  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
  • Magistral Small$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, GPT-4.1 mini or Magistral Small?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (59) and Magistral Small (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, GPT-4.1 mini or Magistral Small?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is cheaper at $0.12 input / $0.48 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Magistral Small costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.21 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (3.3× as much) and $0.75 for Magistral Small (3.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 (#129 of 165), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165) and Magistral Small 133.1 (#134 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (131.1–136.4 vs 130.1–136.1), 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, GPT-4.1 mini and Magistral Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-4.1 mini 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 GPT-4.1 mini have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,047,576 tokens), against 131,072 for Magistral Small. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Magistral Small up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Magistral Small accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Magistral Small publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Magistral Small came out Jun 10, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 Jan 2025, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024.

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.

05 — Keep comparing

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