ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs GPT OSS 20B vs Qwen3.5 9B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.5 9B 72, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 71, GPT OSS 20B 64). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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 20B

    Released Aug 5, 2025

    64/100
    • ECI137.8
    • Price$0.07 / $0.295
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove GPT OSS 20B

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 9B

    Released Feb 23, 2026

    72/100
    • ECI139.5
    • Price$0.10 / $0.15
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 9B
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.5 9B 72/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 71/100, GPT OSS 20B 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 9B for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 9BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 · GPT OSS 20B 137.8 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B $0.113 · GPT OSS 20B $0.126 · 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 · Qwen3.5 9B 262,144 · GPT OSS 20B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GPT OSS 20B: Text · Qwen3.5 9B: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingGPT OSS 20B and Qwen3.5 9BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGPT OSS 20BQwen3.5 9B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%586365
Price25%869295
Inputs & features15%1004580
Context window10%612437
Overall100%71/10064/10072/100
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 20B vs Qwen3.5 9B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleGPT OSS 20BOpenAIQwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9137.8139.5 (best)
ECI rank#118 of 148#108 of 148#101 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—60.8%79.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—65.3% (best)61.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.07 (best)$0.10
Output$0.40$0.295$0.15 (best)
Cached input$0.01——
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.126$0.113 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 18 providersMedian of 14 providers
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite——
API providers20 (best)1915
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Aug 5, 2025Feb 23, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJan 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 20B$1.29
  • Qwen3.5 9B$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GPT OSS 20B or Qwen3.5 9B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.5 9B 72/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 71/100, GPT OSS 20B 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 9B for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite for long inputs. 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 Qwen3.5 9B?

Qwen3.5 9B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). GPT OSS 20B costs $0.07 input / $0.295 output per million tokens (median across 18 API providers); 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 $0.113 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 9B versus $0.126 for GPT OSS 20B (1.1× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 9B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 (#101 of 148), GPT OSS 20B 137.8 (#108 of 148) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (136.5–141.3 vs 133.0–139.6), 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 Qwen3.5 9B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 9B 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 262,144 for Qwen3.5 9B and 131,072 for GPT OSS 20B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, GPT OSS 20B up to 32,768, Qwen3.5 9B up to 65,536 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; Qwen3.5 9B accepts text, images and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

GPT OSS 20B and Qwen3.5 9B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 9B is the newest, released Feb 23, 2026. GPT OSS 20B came out Aug 5, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons