ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Ministral 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 85 to 64 and 57 on our weighted score, though Ministral 8B Instruct is 14% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    85/100
    • ECI133.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

  2. Mistral AI

    Ministral 8B Instruct

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    57/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.15 / $0.15
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 8B Instruct

  3. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    64/100
    • 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 85/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (64) and Ministral 8B Instruct (57). It leads on 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 priceMinistral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2Ministral 8B Instruct $0.15 · 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 8B Instruct 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Ministral 8B Instruct: Text · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMinistral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights (Mistral Research License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMinistral 8B InstructMistral Small 3.2
Price50%868989
Inputs & features30%1002550
Context window20%612424
Overall100%85/10057/10064/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

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 8B Instruct vs Mistral Small 3.2 specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleMinistral 8B InstructMistral AIMistral Small 3.2Mistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9 (best)—131.7
ECI rank#118 of 148 (best)—#123 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—27.2%49.1% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics——30.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.15$0.10 (best)
Output$0.40$0.15 (best)$0.30
Cached input$0.01——
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.15 (best)$0.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 1 providersOfficial Mistral API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 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
WeightsProprietaryOpenMistral Research LicenseOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite—mistral-small-2506
API providers20 (best)16
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Oct 16, 2024Jun 20, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025—Mar 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 8B Instruct$1.80
  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.2?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 85/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (64) and Ministral 8B Instruct (57). It leads on 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, Ministral 8B Instruct or Mistral Small 3.2?

Ministral 8B Instruct is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 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 $0.15 per million tokens for Ministral 8B Instruct versus $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has an ECI of 133.9, Ministral 8B Instruct has not been scored yet and Mistral Small 3.2 has an ECI of 131.7.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Ministral 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 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 131,072 for Ministral 8B Instruct and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Ministral 8B Instruct 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 8B Instruct 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 8B Instruct and Mistral Small 3.2 publishes its weights (Mistral Research License) 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 8B Instruct came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, 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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