ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Qwen3.8 27B

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite comes out ahead, 70 to 67 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

    Released Jul 21, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI145.1
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 27B

    Released Aug 14, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI149.4
    • Price$0.40 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 27B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is our pick

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3.8 27B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 27BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1
  • Lowest priceGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 · Qwen3.8 27B $0.925 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.8 27B: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.8 27BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 3.5 Flash LiteQwen3.8 27B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7277
Price25%5351
Inputs & features15%10080
Context window10%6137
Overall100%70/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Qwen3.8 27B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogleQwen3.8 27BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)145.1149.4 (best)
ECI rank#79 of 148#53 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions83.3%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics26.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics71.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30 (best)$0.40
Output$2.50$2.50
Cached input$0.03—
Blended (3:1)$0.85 (best)$0.925
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIMedian of 39 providers
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYesminimal · low · medium · highYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDgemini-3.5-flash-lite—
API providers2641 (best)
ReleasedJul 21, 2026Aug 14, 2026
Knowledge cutoffMar 2026—
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 3.5 Flash Lite$8.00
  • Qwen3.8 27B$9.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Qwen3.8 27B?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3.8 27B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Qwen3.8 27B?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.85 per million tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite versus $0.925 for Qwen3.8 27B (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148) and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 (#79 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.5–151.6 vs 142.5–146.7), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Qwen3.8 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 27B 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 3.5 Flash Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.8 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 27B is the newest, released Aug 14, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite came out Jul 21, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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