Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 62 and 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
MetaLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
62/100- ECI129.7
- Price$0.225 / $0.69
- Context10M
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on context window. 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 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct | Mistral Small 3.1 24B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 52 | 50 |
| Price | 25% | 86 | 72 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 50 | 60 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 100 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 62/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta | Mistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.9 (best) | 129.7 | 127.5 |
| ECI rank | #118 of 148 (best) | #126 of 148 | #132 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 51.8% (best) | 47.5% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 7.8% (best) | 5.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.225 | $0.229 |
| Output | $0.40 (best) | $0.69 | $0.436 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 (best) | $0.341 | $0.281 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 4 providers | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens | 10,000,000 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | — | — |
| API providers | 20 (best) | 4 | 2 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Apr 5, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Aug 2024 | 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 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
- Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Llama 4 Scout 17B 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 $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct costs $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 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 $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (1.6× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (2× 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 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 124.8–131.4), 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 Scout 17B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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?
Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 1,048,576 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, 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 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; 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 4 Scout 17B 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. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024, 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 Oct 4, 2026.
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