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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Mistral Small 3.1 24B

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  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

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

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 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and 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 · 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 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 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Mistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.1 24B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5850
Price25%8676
Inputs & features15%10060
Context window10%6124
Overall100%71/10055/100
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 Mistral Small 3.1 24B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9 (best)127.5
ECI rank#118 of 148 (best)#132 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—47.5%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—5.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.229
Output$0.40 (best)$0.436
Cached input$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.175 (best)$0.281
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)128,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite—
API providers20 (best)2
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Mar 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025Jun 2024
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
  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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). 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).

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) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 122.6–129.4), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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. Both 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. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, 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; 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?

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. 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.

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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