Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs Qwen3 30B A3B vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 57 and 57 on our weighted score.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
67/100- ECI133.8
- Price$0.12 / $0.48
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 30B A3B
57/100- ECI136.2
- Price$0.108 / $0.475
- Context131K
MetaLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
57/100- ECI132.3
- Price$0.245 / $0.838
- Context1M
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 Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (57) and Qwen3 30B A3B (57). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3 30B A3B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3 30B A3BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.3
- Lowest priceQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 30B A3B $0.20 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 $0.21 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.393 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · 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 · Qwen3 30B A3B: Text · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingQwen3 30B A3B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 | Qwen3 30B A3B | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 57 | 59 | 55 |
| Price | 25% | 79 | 80 | 66 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 35 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 25 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 67/100 | 57/100 | 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 | Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen) | Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.8 | 136.2 (best) | 132.3 |
| ECI rank | #132 of 165 | #126 of 165 (best) | #135 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 61.7% | 67.0% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 62.8% (best) | 20.6% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.12 | $0.108 (best) | $0.245 |
| Output | $0.48 | $0.475 (best) | $0.838 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.21 | $0.20 (best) | $0.393 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 2 providers | Median of 14 providers | Median of 16 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 2 | 14 | 16 (best) |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Apr 28, 2025 | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | — | Aug 2024 |
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
- Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$4.13
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, Qwen3 30B A3B or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (57) and Qwen3 30B A3B (57). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3 30B A3B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17, Qwen3 30B A3B or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
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); Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.245 input / $0.838 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). 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 $0.393 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (2× 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), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.3 (#135 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.8–138.5 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, Qwen3 30B A3B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and 131,072 for Qwen3 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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; Qwen3 30B A3B accepts text; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 30B A3B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 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; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 Jan 2025, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 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.
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