Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs GPT OSS 20B vs Mistral Small 3.2
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 64 and 60 on our weighted score, though GPT OSS 20B is 28% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
Google
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
OpenAI
GPT OSS 20B
64/100- ECI137.8
- Price$0.07 / $0.295
- Context131K
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.2
60/100- ECI131.7
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
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 20B (64) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on inputs & features and context window. GPT OSS 20B wins on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT OSS 20BCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT OSS 20B 137.8 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
- Lowest priceGPT OSS 20BGPT OSS 20B $0.126 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · GPT OSS 20B 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 20B: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
- Self-hostingGPT OSS 20B and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | GPT OSS 20B | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 63 | 55 |
| Price | 25% | 86 | 92 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 45 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 64/100 | 60/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.9 | 137.8 (best) | 131.7 |
| ECI rank | #118 of 148 | #108 of 148 (best) | #123 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 60.8% (best) | 49.1% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 65.3% (best) | 30.3% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 | $0.07 (best) | $0.10 |
| Output | $0.40 | $0.295 (best) | $0.30 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 | $0.126 (best) | $0.15 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 18 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 32,768 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 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | — | mistral-small-2506 |
| API providers | 20 (best) | 19 | 6 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Aug 5, 2025 | 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
GPT OSS 20B$1.29
Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GPT OSS 20B or Mistral Small 3.2?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against GPT OSS 20B (64) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on inputs & features and context window. GPT OSS 20B wins on capability and price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GPT OSS 20B or Mistral Small 3.2?
GPT OSS 20B is cheaper at $0.07 input / $0.295 output per million tokens (median across 18 API providers). Mistral Small 3.2 costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.126 per million tokens for GPT OSS 20B versus $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1.2× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT OSS 20B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT OSS 20B 137.8 (#108 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 (133.0–139.6 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 20B and Mistral Small 3.2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT OSS 20B 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 20B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, GPT OSS 20B 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 20B 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 20B 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 20B 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.