Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Mistral Small 3.2
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 55 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 14% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
Google
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.1 24B
55/100- ECI127.5
- Price$0.229 / $0.436
- Context128K
Mistral AI
Mistral Small 3.2
60/100- ECI131.7
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. 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 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images
- Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24B and Mistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Mistral Small 3.1 24B | Mistral Small 3.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 50 | 55 |
| Price | 25% | 86 | 76 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 60 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 55/100 | 60/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.9 (best) | 127.5 | 131.7 |
| ECI rank | #118 of 148 (best) | #132 of 148 | #123 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 47.5% | 49.1% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 5.8% | 30.3% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.229 | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.40 | $0.436 | $0.30 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 | $0.281 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 2 providers | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 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 | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | — | mistral-small-2506 |
| API providers | 20 (best) | 2 | 6 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Mar 17, 2025 | Jun 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Jun 2024 | Mar 2025 |
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
Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. 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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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); Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 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 $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (1.9× 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 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, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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; Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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?
Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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; Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 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.