GLM-4.5-Air vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Codestral 25.08
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 83 to 48 and 47 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-4.5-Air
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $1.10
- Context131K
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
83/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
Mistral AICodestral 25.08
47/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $0.90
- Context128K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against GLM-4.5-Air (48) and Codestral 25.08 (47). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · GLM-4.5-Air $0.425 · Codestral 25.08 $0.45 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · GLM-4.5-Air 131,072 · Codestral 25.08 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGLM-4.5-Air: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Codestral 25.08: Text
- Self-hostingGLM-4.5-AirPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | GLM-4.5-Air | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Codestral 25.08 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 65 | 82 | 64 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 100 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 61 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 48/100 | 83/100 | 47/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu) | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | Codestral 25.08Mistral AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.20 | $0.10 (best) | $0.30 |
| Output | $1.10 | $0.40 (best) | $0.90 |
| Cached input | $0.03 | $0.01 (best) | $0.03 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.425 | $0.175 (best) | $0.45 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Z.AI API | Official Google API | Official Mistral API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 98,304 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | glm-4.5-air | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | codestral-2508 |
| API providers | 19 | 24 (best) | 11 |
| Released | Jul 28, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Jul 30, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Jan 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GLM-4.5-Air$4.20
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
- Codestral 25.08$4.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GLM-4.5-Air, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Codestral 25.08?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against GLM-4.5-Air (48) and Codestral 25.08 (47). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, GLM-4.5-Air, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Codestral 25.08?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). GLM-4.5-Air costs $0.20 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price); Codestral 25.08 costs $0.30 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (official Mistral 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 $0.425 for GLM-4.5-Air (2.4× as much) and $0.45 for Codestral 25.08 (2.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. GLM-4.5-Air has not been scored yet, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has not been scored yet and Codestral 25.08 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GLM-4.5-Air, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Codestral 25.08 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. 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 GLM-4.5-Air and 128,000 for Codestral 25.08. Maximum output per response: GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Codestral 25.08 up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GLM-4.5-Air accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Codestral 25.08 accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
GLM-4.5-Air publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Codestral 25.08 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Codestral 25.08 is the newest, released Jul 30, 2025. GLM-4.5-Air came out Jul 28, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GLM-4.5-Air Apr 2025, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 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 Nov 2, 2026.
Related comparisons
- GLM-4.5-Air vs Llama 3.3 Nemotron Super 49B v1.5NVIDIA
- GLM-4.5-Air vs Qwen3 Omni 30B A3B ThinkingAlibaba (Qwen)
- GLM-4.5-Air vs ERNIE 4.5 300B A47BBaidu
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Voxtral Small 24B 2507Mistral AI
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Qwen FlashAlibaba (Qwen)
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs ERNIE 4.5 21B A3BBaidu
