ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 58 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 14% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    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. Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (58). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.2 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 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%585655
Price25%866689
Inputs & features15%1005050
Context window10%616024
Overall100%71/10058/10060/100
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 Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMetaMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9 (best)132.2131.7
ECI rank#118 of 148 (best)#122 of 148#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—67.0% (best)49.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—20.6%30.3% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.321$0.10 (best)
Output$0.40$0.91$0.30 (best)
Cached input$0.01——
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.468$0.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 6 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite—mistral-small-2506
API providers20 (best)66
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Apr 5, 2025Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025Aug 2024Mar 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
  • Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.2?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (58). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Mistral Small 3.2 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 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.2?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $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); Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.2× as much) and $0.468 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (3.1× 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), Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 128.0–134.1), 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, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 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 1,000,000 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384, 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; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images; 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?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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