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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3 30B A3B

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 59 and 57 on our weighted score.

  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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 30B A3B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    57/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.108 / $0.475
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 30B A3B
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 Qwen3 30B A3B (57). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 30B A3BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 · 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 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 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 · Qwen3 30B A3B 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 · Qwen3 30B A3B: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 30B A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GPT-4.1 miniQwen3 30B A3B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%575859
Price25%795580
Inputs & features15%907035
Context window10%616125
Overall100%67/10059/10057/100
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 Qwen3 30B A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GoogleGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIQwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.8134.9136.2 (best)
ECI rank#132 of 165#129 of 165#126 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—65.9% (best)61.7%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—44.7%62.8% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—12.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.12$0.40$0.108 (best)
Output$0.48$1.60$0.475 (best)
Cached input—$0.10—
Blended (3:1)$0.21$0.70$0.20 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 14 providers
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,047,576 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsYesYesNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model ID—gpt-4.1-mini—
API providers228 (best)14
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Apr 14, 2025Apr 28, 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
  • Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3 30B A3B?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (59) and Qwen3 30B A3B (57). It leads on 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 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); GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI 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 $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (3.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 30B A3B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 (#126 of 165), GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 (#129 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.8–138.5 vs 131.1–136.4), 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 Qwen3 30B A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 30B A3B 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 Qwen3 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, 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; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; 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 GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Qwen3 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 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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