GPT-5 Mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66, GPT-5 Mini 64, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 55). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-5 Mini
64/100- ECI145.4
- Price$0.25 / $2.00
- Context400K
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash
66/100- ECI140.6
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507
55/100- ECI143.8
- Price$0.30 / $2.90
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, GPT-5 Mini 64/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 55/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Mini for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-5 MiniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Mini 145.4 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 143.8 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6
- Lowest priceGPT-5 MiniGPT-5 Mini $0.688 · Gemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 $0.95 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · GPT-5 Mini 400,000 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 FlashGPT-5 Mini: Text, Images · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Publishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | GPT-5 Mini | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 71 | 65 | 69 |
| Price | 25% | 55 | 51 | 49 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 100 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 44 | 61 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 66/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-5 MiniOpenAI | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 145.4 (best) | 140.6 | 143.8 |
| ECI rank | #87 of 165 (best) | #110 of 165 | #93 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 75.0% | — | 80.1% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 46.7% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 86.7% | — | 86.7% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 64.7% | — | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 21.6% | — | 40.4% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.25 (best) | $0.30 | $0.30 |
| Output | $2.00 (best) | $2.50 | $2.90 |
| Cached input | $0.025 (best) | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.688 (best) | $0.85 | $0.95 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Google API | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 400,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 81,920 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | gpt-5-mini | gemini-2.5-flash | — |
| API providers | 35 (best) | 32 | 12 |
| Released | Aug 7, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Jul 25, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 30, 2024 | 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.
- GPT-5 Mini$6.50
- Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
- Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507$8.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-5 Mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, GPT-5 Mini 64/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 55/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Mini for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5 Mini, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507?
GPT-5 Mini is cheaper at $0.25 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Gemini 2.5 Flash 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 $0.688 per million tokens for GPT-5 Mini versus $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash (1.2× as much) and $0.95 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-5 Mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Mini 145.4 (#87 of 165), Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 143.8 (#93 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (143.5–147.1 vs 141.9–145.2), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash and Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5 Mini and 262,144 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507. Maximum output per response: GPT-5 Mini up to 128,000, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 up to 81,920 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-5 Mini accepts text and images; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; GPT-5 Mini and Gemini 2.5 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
GPT-5 Mini is the newest, released Aug 7, 2025. Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 came out Jul 25, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5 Mini May 30, 2024, Gemini 2.5 Flash 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.
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