ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Ministral 3B vs Mistral Small 3.2

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 49 on our weighted score, though Ministral 3B is 43% 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. Mistral AI

    Ministral 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 3B

  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 Ministral 3B (49). 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 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 · Ministral 3B 118.1
  • Lowest priceMinistral 3BMinistral 3B $0.10 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · 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 · Ministral 3B 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Ministral 3B: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMinistral 3B and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMinistral 3BMistral Small 3.2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%583855
Price25%869789
Inputs & features15%1002550
Context window10%612424
Overall100%71/10049/10060/100
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 Ministral 3B vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleMinistral 3BMistral AIMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9 (best)118.1131.7
ECI rank#118 of 148 (best)#144 of 148#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—25.3%49.1% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics——30.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.10$0.10
Output$0.40$0.10 (best)$0.30
Cached input$0.01——
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.10 (best)$0.15
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)128,000 tokens128,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)8,192 tokens16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite—mistral-small-2506
API providers20 (best)16
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Oct 16, 2024Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025Mar 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
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Ministral 3B 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 Ministral 3B (49). 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, Ministral 3B or Mistral Small 3.2?

Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Mistral Small 3.2 costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.10 per million tokens for Ministral 3B versus $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1.5× 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), Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148) and Ministral 3B 118.1 (#144 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 126.6–133.9), 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, Ministral 3B 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 128,000 for Ministral 3B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Ministral 3B up to 8,192, 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; Ministral 3B accepts text; 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?

Ministral 3B 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; Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Ministral 3B Mar 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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