Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 83 to 53 and 41 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
MetaLlama-3.3-70B-Instruct
41/100- ECI127.3
- Price$0.59 / $0.753
- Context128K
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
53/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.351 / $0.555
- Context128K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (53) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (41). It leads on price, inputs & features and 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 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.402 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct $0.631 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct: Text · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingLlama-3.3-70B-Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct | Mistral Small 3.1 24B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 82 | 57 | 66 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 100 | 25 | 50 |
| Context window | 20% | 61 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 83/100 | 41/100 | 53/100 |
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 | Llama-3.3-70B-InstructMeta | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 127.3 | 127.5 (best) |
| ECI rank | — | #146 of 165 | #145 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 47.4% | 47.5% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 5.1% | 5.8% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.59 | $0.351 |
| Output | $0.40 (best) | $0.753 | $0.555 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 (best) | $0.631 | $0.402 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 37 providers | Median of 9 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 4,096 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 | 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 | 24 | 40 (best) | 9 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Dec 6, 2024 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Dec 2023 | Jun 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-3.3-70B-Instruct$7.41
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$4.62
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (53) and Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (41). It leads on price, inputs & features and 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, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $0.351 input / $0.555 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers); Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct costs $0.59 input / $0.753 output per million tokens (median across 37 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 $0.402 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (2.3× as much) and $0.631 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct (3.6× 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, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct has an ECI of 127.3 and Mistral Small 3.1 24B has an ECI of 127.5.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 128,000 for Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct up to 4,096, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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; Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct accepts text; Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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. Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025; Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct came out Dec 6, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct Dec 2023, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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