Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 vs Ministral 14B vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 comes out ahead, 81 to 63 and 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025
81/100- ECI—
- Price$0.095 / $0.38
- Context1.05M
Mistral AIMinistral 14B
63/100- ECI—
- Price$0.175 / $0.175
- Context262K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 30B A3B
55/100- ECI136.2
- Price$0.108 / $0.475
- Context131K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 is the better all-round choice, scoring 81/100 against Ministral 14B (63) and Qwen3 30B A3B (55). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 $0.166 · Ministral 14B $0.175 · Qwen3 30B A3B $0.20 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 1,048,576 · Ministral 14B 262,144 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Ministral 14B: Text, Images · Qwen3 30B A3B: Text
- Self-hostingMinistral 14B and Qwen3 30B A3BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 | Ministral 14B | Qwen3 30B A3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 83 | 82 | 80 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 90 | 50 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 61 | 37 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 81/100 | 63/100 | 55/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025Google | Ministral 14BMistral AI | Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | 136.2 |
| ECI rank | — | — | #126 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | — | 61.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | — | 62.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.095 (best) | $0.175 | $0.108 |
| Output | $0.38 | $0.175 (best) | $0.475 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.166 (best) | $0.175 | $0.20 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 2 providers | Median of 2 providers | Median of 14 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 2 | 2 | 14 (best) |
| Released | Sep 25, 2025 | Dec 2, 2025 | Apr 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 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 09-2025$1.71
- Ministral 14B$2.10
- Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025, Ministral 14B or Qwen3 30B A3B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 is the better all-round choice, scoring 81/100 against Ministral 14B (63) and Qwen3 30B A3B (55). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025, Ministral 14B or Qwen3 30B A3B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 is cheaper at $0.095 input / $0.38 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Ministral 14B costs $0.175 input / $0.175 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Qwen3 30B A3B costs $0.108 input / $0.475 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.166 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 versus $0.175 for Ministral 14B (1.1× as much) and $0.20 for Qwen3 30B A3B (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 has not been scored yet, Ministral 14B has not been scored yet and Qwen3 30B A3B has an ECI of 136.2.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025, Ministral 14B and Qwen3 30B A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Ministral 14B and 131,072 for Qwen3 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 up to 65,536, Ministral 14B up to 262,144, Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Ministral 14B accepts text and images; Qwen3 30B A3B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Ministral 14B and Qwen3 30B A3B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Ministral 14B is the newest, released Dec 2, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 came out Sep 25, 2025; Qwen3 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 09-2025 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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