Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs MiniMax-M2.7 vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68, MiniMax-M2.7 61). The right pick depends on what you value most.
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash Lite
70/100- ECI145.1
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
MiniMaxMiniMax-M2.7
61/100- ECI145.9
- Price$0.30 / $1.20
- Context205K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
68/100- ECI143.9
- Price$0.248 / $1.49
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, MiniMax-M2.7 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2.7 for raw capability and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityMiniMax-M2.7Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.7 145.9 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
- Lowest priceMiniMax-M2.7MiniMax-M2.7 $0.525 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 · MiniMax-M2.7 204,800 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · MiniMax-M2.7: Text · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingMiniMax-M2.7 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | MiniMax-M2.7 | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 72 | 73 | 70 |
| Price | 25% | 53 | 63 | 62 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 35 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 32 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 70/100 | 61/100 | 68/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle | MiniMax-M2.7MiniMax | Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.1 | 145.9 (best) | 143.9 |
| ECI rank | #79 of 148 | #73 of 148 (best) | #83 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 83.3% | — | 84.9% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 26.0% (best) | — | 20.4% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 71.1% | — | 86.7% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 | $0.30 | $0.248 (best) |
| Output | $2.50 | $1.20 (best) | $1.49 |
| Cached input | $0.03 (best) | $0.06 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.85 | $0.525 (best) | $0.557 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official MiniMax (minimax.io) API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 204,800 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | Yes |
| Video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-3.5-flash-lite | MiniMax-M2.7 | qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
| API providers | 26 | 29 | 34 (best) |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Mar 18, 2026 | Apr 17, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2026 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$8.00
- MiniMax-M2.7$5.40
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, MiniMax-M2.7 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 70/100, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, MiniMax-M2.7 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: MiniMax-M2.7 for raw capability and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, MiniMax-M2.7 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
MiniMax-M2.7 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Qwen3.6 35B-A3B costs $0.248 input / $1.49 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M2.7 versus $0.557 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (1.1× as much) and $0.85 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (1.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
MiniMax-M2.7 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): MiniMax-M2.7 145.9 (#73 of 148), Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 (#79 of 148) and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (138.2–148.0 vs 142.5–146.7), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, MiniMax-M2.7 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, MiniMax-M2.7 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 3.5 Flash Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.7. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, MiniMax-M2.7 up to 131,072, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; MiniMax-M2.7 accepts text; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
MiniMax-M2.7 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the newest, released Jul 21, 2026. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B came out Apr 17, 2026; MiniMax-M2.7 came out Mar 18, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Mar 2026.
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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