Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite comes out ahead, 69 to 63 and 55 on our weighted score.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash Lite
69/100- ECI145.0
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507
55/100- ECI143.8
- Price$0.30 / $2.90
- Context262K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
63/100- ECI143.8
- Price$0.375 / $2.25
- Context262K
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is our pick
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (63) and Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 (55). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 3.5 Flash LiteCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.0 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.8 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 143.8
- Lowest priceQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.844 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 $0.95 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 262,144 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507: Text · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 70 | 69 | 69 |
| Price | 25% | 51 | 49 | 51 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 35 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 37 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 55/100 | 63/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogle | Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.0 (best) | 143.8 | 143.8 |
| ECI rank | #89 of 165 (best) | #93 of 165 | #92 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 83.3% | 80.1% | 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) | 86.7% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 40.4% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 (best) | $0.30 (best) | $0.375 |
| Output | $2.50 | $2.90 | $2.25 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.03 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.85 | $0.95 | $0.844 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 11 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 81,920 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 | Open |
| API model ID | gemini-3.5-flash-lite | — | qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
| API providers | 29 | 12 | 38 (best) |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Jul 25, 2025 | 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
- Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507$8.80
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$8.25
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (63) and Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 (55). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.375 input / $2.25 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); Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 costs $0.30 input / $2.90 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.844 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B versus $0.85 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite (1× as much) and $0.95 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 (1.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.0 (#89 of 165), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.8 (#92 of 165) and Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 143.8 (#93 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (142.6–146.3 vs 141.1–146.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 84.9%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 83.3%, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 80.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 86.7%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 86.7%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 71.1%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 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 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 and 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 up to 81,920, 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; Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 accepts text; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) 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; Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 came out Jul 25, 2025. 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 Nov 2, 2026.
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