Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs GLM-5.3-Flash vs Mistral Small 3.2
GLM-5.3-Flash comes out ahead, 80 to 71 and 60 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 37% cheaper per token.
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
- Our pick
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-5.3-Flash
80/100- ECI151.9
- Price$0.15 / $0.50
- Context1M
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.2
60/100- ECI131.7
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
GLM-5.3-Flash is our pick
GLM-5.3-Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 80/100 against Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (71) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on capability. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite wins on inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGLM-5.3-FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): GLM-5.3-Flash 151.9 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · GLM-5.3-Flash $0.237 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · GLM-5.3-Flash 1,000,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GLM-5.3-Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
- Self-hostingGLM-5.3-Flash and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | GLM-5.3-Flash | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 81 | 55 |
| Price | 25% | 86 | 79 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 90 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 60 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 80/100 | 60/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai (Zhipu) | Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.9 | 151.9 (best) | 131.7 |
| ECI rank | #118 of 148 | #42 of 148 (best) | #123 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 90.2% (best) | 49.1% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 55.8% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 93.9% (best) | 30.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.15 | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.40 | $0.50 | $0.30 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.01 (best) | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 | $0.237 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Z.AI API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeslow · high · max | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | glm-5.3-flash | mistral-small-2506 |
| API providers | 20 | 65 (best) | 6 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Aug 26, 2026 | Jun 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | — | Mar 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$1.80
- GLM-5.3-Flash$2.50
- Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GLM-5.3-Flash or Mistral Small 3.2?
GLM-5.3-Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 80/100 against Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (71) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on capability. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite wins on inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GLM-5.3-Flash or Mistral Small 3.2?
Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price); GLM-5.3-Flash costs $0.15 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.2× as much) and $0.237 for GLM-5.3-Flash (1.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GLM-5.3-Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GLM-5.3-Flash 151.9 (#42 of 148), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (149.4–154.3 vs 129.8–136.3), so the gap is a real one.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GLM-5.3-Flash and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GLM-5.3-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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for GLM-5.3-Flash and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, GLM-5.3-Flash up to 131,072, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; GLM-5.3-Flash accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
GLM-5.3-Flash and Mistral Small 3.2 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
GLM-5.3-Flash is the newest, released Aug 26, 2026. Mistral Small 3.2 came out Jun 20, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 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 Oct 4, 2026.
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