Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Grok 4.1 Fast vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 83 to 66 and 62 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
83/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
xAIGrok 4.1 Fast
66/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $0.50
- Context2M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
62/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context262K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Grok 4.1 Fast (66) and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct (62). It leads on price and inputs & features. Grok 4.1 Fast wins on 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-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct $0.263 · Grok 4.1 Fast $0.275 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGrok 4.1 FastGrok 4.1 Fast 2,000,000 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Grok 4.1 Fast: Text, Images · Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Grok 4.1 Fast | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 82 | 73 | 74 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 100 | 50 | 60 |
| Context window | 20% | 61 | 72 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 83/100 | 66/100 | 62/100 |
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-LiteGoogle | Grok 4.1 FastxAI | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.20 | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.40 (best) | $0.50 | $0.60 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 (best) | $0.275 | $0.263 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 6 providers | Median of 13 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 2,000,000 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 30,000 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | — | — |
| API providers | 24 (best) | 8 | 13 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Nov 19, 2025 | Oct 4, 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$1.80
- Grok 4.1 Fast$3.00
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$2.70
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Grok 4.1 Fast or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Grok 4.1 Fast (66) and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct (62). It leads on price and inputs & features. Grok 4.1 Fast wins on 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, Grok 4.1 Fast or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (median across 13 API providers); Grok 4.1 Fast costs $0.20 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.175 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite versus $0.263 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct (1.5× as much) and $0.275 for Grok 4.1 Fast (1.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has not been scored yet, Grok 4.1 Fast has not been scored yet and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Grok 4.1 Fast and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct 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?
Grok 4.1 Fast has the largest context window at 2,000,000 tokens, against 1,048,576 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and 262,144 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Grok 4.1 Fast up to 30,000, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Grok 4.1 Fast accepts text and images; Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct accepts text, images and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Grok 4.1 Fast is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Grok 4.1 Fast is the newest, released Nov 19, 2025. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct came out Oct 4, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
