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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Qwen3 235B-A22B

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 51 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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B

  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 Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 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 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteQwen3 235B-A22B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%5865
Price25%8646
Inputs & features15%10035
Context window10%6124
Overall100%71/10051/100
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 Qwen3 235B-A22B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleQwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9139.4 (best)
ECI rank#118 of 148#103 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—70.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.70
Output$0.40 (best)$2.80
Cached input$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.175 (best)$1.23
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsYesNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-liteqwen3-235b-a22b
API providers20 (best)7
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025Apr 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
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Qwen3 235B-A22B?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. 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 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $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 $0.175 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite versus $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (7× 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) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 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 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. 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 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, 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; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 235B-A22B 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. Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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