ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs GPT OSS 120B vs Mistral Small 3.2

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 61 and 60 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 14% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    71/100
    • ECI133.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

  2. OpenAI

    GPT OSS 120B

    Released Aug 5, 2025

    61/100
    • ECI140.0
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove GPT OSS 120B

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against GPT OSS 120B (61) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on inputs & features and context window. GPT OSS 120B wins on capability. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT OSS 120BCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT OSS 120B 140.0 · 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 · GPT OSS 120B $0.263 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · GPT OSS 120B 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GPT OSS 120B: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingGPT OSS 120B and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGPT OSS 120BMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%586555
Price25%867789
Inputs & features15%1004550
Context window10%612424
Overall100%71/10061/10060/100
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 vs GPT OSS 120B vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleGPT OSS 120BOpenAIMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9140.0 (best)131.7
ECI rank#118 of 148#99 of 148 (best)#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—75.8% (best)49.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—88.9% (best)30.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.15$0.10 (best)
Output$0.40$0.60$0.30 (best)
Cached input$0.01——
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.263$0.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 36 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite—mistral-small-2506
API providers2039 (best)6
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Aug 5, 2025Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025—Mar 2025
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$1.80
  • GPT OSS 120B$2.70
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GPT OSS 120B or Mistral Small 3.2?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against GPT OSS 120B (61) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on inputs & features and context window. GPT OSS 120B wins on capability. 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, GPT OSS 120B 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); GPT OSS 120B costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (median across 36 API providers). 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 $0.263 for GPT OSS 120B (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT OSS 120B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT OSS 120B 140.0 (#99 of 148), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.3–142.3 vs 129.8–136.3), 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, GPT OSS 120B and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT OSS 120B 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 131,072 for GPT OSS 120B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, GPT OSS 120B up to 32,768, 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; GPT OSS 120B accepts text; 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?

GPT OSS 120B and Mistral Small 3.2 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GPT OSS 120B is the newest, released Aug 5, 2025. 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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