Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Ministral 3B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 49 and 46 on our weighted score, though Ministral 3B is 43% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
46/100- ECI116.6
- Price$0.152 / $0.167
- Context128K
Mistral AIMinistral 3B
49/100- ECI118.1
- Price$0.10 / $0.10
- Context128K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Ministral 3B (49) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 3B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Ministral 3B 118.1 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6
- Lowest priceMinistral 3BMinistral 3B $0.10 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · 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 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 · Ministral 3B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Ministral 3B: Text
- Self-hostingLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 3BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 36 | 38 |
| Price | 25% | 86 | 88 | 97 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 46/100 | 49/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta | Ministral 3BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.9 (best) | 116.6 | 118.1 |
| ECI rank | #118 of 148 (best) | #145 of 148 | #144 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 27.0% (best) | 25.3% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 1.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.152 | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.40 | $0.167 | $0.10 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 | $0.156 | $0.10 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 9 providers | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | — | — |
| API providers | 20 (best) | 9 | 1 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Jul 23, 2024 | Oct 16, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Dec 2023 | Mar 2024 |
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
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
- Ministral 3B$1.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Ministral 3B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Ministral 3B (49) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 3B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct or Ministral 3B?
Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 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 $0.10 per million tokens for Ministral 3B versus $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1.6× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148), Ministral 3B 118.1 (#144 of 148) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6 (#145 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 107.4–121.8), 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, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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 128,000 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and 128,000 for Ministral 3B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, Ministral 3B up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct accepts text; Ministral 3B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Ministral 3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, Ministral 3B Mar 2024.
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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