Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Mistral Small 3.2 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 51 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 14% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.2
60/100- ECI131.7
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B
51/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.70 / $2.80
- Context131K
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 Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Qwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Mistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text
- Self-hostingMistral Small 3.2 and Qwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Mistral Small 3.2 | Qwen3 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 58 | 55 | 65 |
| Price | 25% | 86 | 89 | 46 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 50 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 60/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AI | Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.9 | 131.7 | 139.4 (best) |
| ECI rank | #118 of 148 | #123 of 148 | #103 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 49.1% | 70.7% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 30.3% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.10 (best) | $0.70 |
| Output | $0.40 | $0.30 (best) | $2.80 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.175 | $0.15 (best) | $1.23 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Mistral API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | mistral-small-2506 | qwen3-235b-a22b |
| API providers | 20 (best) | 6 | 7 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Jun 20, 2025 | Apr 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Mar 2025 | Apr 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 3.2$1.60
- Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Mistral Small 3.2 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Mistral Small 3.2 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?
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); Qwen3 235B-A22B costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (8.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3 235B-A22B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.2–140.8 vs 129.8–136.3), 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 3.2 and Qwen3 235B-A22B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B 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 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, Qwen3 235B-A22B 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 3.2 accepts text and images; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral Small 3.2 and Qwen3 235B-A22B 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; Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 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.
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