ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

GPT-4.1 mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs Magistral Small

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 59 and 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. OpenAI

    GPT-4.1 mini

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    59/100
    • ECI134.9
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1 mini
  2. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    67/100
    • ECI133.8
    • Price$0.12 / $0.48
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17

  3. Mistral AI

    Magistral Small

    Released Jun 10, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI133.1
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Magistral Small
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (59) and Magistral Small (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-4.1 miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 · Magistral Small 133.1
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 $0.21 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Magistral Small $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 miniGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · GPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Magistral Small 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Magistral Small: Text
  • Self-hostingMagistral SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-4.1 miniGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Magistral Small
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%585756
Price25%557953
Inputs & features15%709035
Context window10%616125
Overall100%59/10067/10049/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

GPT-4.1 mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs Magistral Small specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GoogleMagistral SmallMistral AI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)134.9 (best)133.8133.1
ECI rank#129 of 165 (best)#132 of 165#134 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions65.9% (best)—56.1%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics6.7%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics44.7% (best)—30.0%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions12.7%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.12 (best)$0.50
Output$1.60$0.48 (best)$1.50
Cached input$0.10——
Blended (3:1)$0.70$0.21 (best)$0.75
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 2 providersMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window1,047,576 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens65,536 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsYesYesNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningNoYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpenApache 2.0
API model IDgpt-4.1-mini——
API providers28 (best)22
ReleasedApr 14, 2025Jun 17, 2025Jun 10, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Jan 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.

  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
  • Magistral Small$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-4.1 mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 or Magistral Small?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (59) and Magistral Small (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 or Magistral Small?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is cheaper at $0.12 input / $0.48 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Magistral Small costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.21 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (3.3× as much) and $0.75 for Magistral Small (3.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-4.1 mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 (#129 of 165), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165) and Magistral Small 133.1 (#134 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (131.1–136.4 vs 130.1–136.1), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4.1 mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Magistral Small yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-4.1 mini 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 Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 mini have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,047,576 tokens), against 131,072 for Magistral Small. Maximum output per response: GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, Magistral Small up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Magistral Small accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Magistral Small publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Magistral Small came out Jun 10, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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