ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Qwen3 30B A3B vs Qwen3 8B

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 58 and 56 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 30B A3B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.114 / $0.50
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 30B A3B

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B
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 30B A3B (58) and Qwen3 8B (56). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 30B A3BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · Qwen3 8B 136.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Qwen3 30B A3B $0.21 · Qwen3 8B $0.31 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 · Qwen3 8B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 30B A3B: Text · Qwen3 8B: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3 8BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 8B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%586161
Price25%868274
Inputs & features15%1003535
Context window10%612424
Overall100%71/10058/10056/100
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 30B A3B vs Qwen3 8B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleQwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.9136.2 (best)136.2
ECI rank#118 of 148#112 of 148 (best)#113 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—61.7% (best)56.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—62.8% (best)56.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.114$0.18
Output$0.40 (best)$0.50$0.70
Cached input$0.01——
Blended (3:1)$0.175 (best)$0.21$0.31
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 8 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDgemini-2.5-flash-lite—qwen3-8b
API providers20 (best)81
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Apr 28, 2025Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025—Apr 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 30B A3B$2.14
  • Qwen3 8B$3.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, Qwen3 30B A3B or Qwen3 8B?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Qwen3 30B A3B (58) and Qwen3 8B (56). It leads on 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, Qwen3 30B A3B or Qwen3 8B?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Qwen3 30B A3B costs $0.114 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers); Qwen3 8B costs $0.18 input / $0.70 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 $0.21 for Qwen3 30B A3B (1.2× as much) and $0.31 for Qwen3 8B (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 30B A3B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 (#112 of 148), Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.3–138.7 vs 129.7–138.1), 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, Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3 8B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 30B A3B 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 30B A3B and 131,072 for Qwen3 8B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384, Qwen3 8B up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 30B A3B accepts text; Qwen3 8B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3 8B 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 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 2025; Qwen3 8B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Qwen3 8B 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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