ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

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

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. Mistral AI

    Magistral Small

    Released Jun 10, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI133.1
    • Price$0.50 / $1.50
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Magistral Small
  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. 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
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 06-17Magistral Small: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingMagistral SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMagistral SmallGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GPT-4.1 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%565758
Price25%537955
Inputs & features15%359070
Context window10%256161
Overall100%49/10067/10059/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Magistral Small vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs GPT-4.1 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationMagistral SmallMistral AIGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17GoogleGPT-4.1 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)133.1133.8134.9 (best)
ECI rank#134 of 165#132 of 165#129 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.1%—65.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——6.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics30.0%—44.7% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——12.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.12 (best)$0.40
Output$1.50$0.48 (best)$1.60
Cached input——$0.10
Blended (3:1)$0.75$0.21 (best)$0.70
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 2 providersOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)1,047,576 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoYesYes
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYesYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache 2.0ProprietaryProprietary
API model ID——gpt-4.1-mini
API providers2228 (best)
ReleasedJun 10, 2025Jun 17, 2025Apr 14, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 2025Apr 2024
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.

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

Which should you choose?

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

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

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 Magistral Small, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 mini 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: Magistral Small up to 8,192, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Magistral Small accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs. 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; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 mini 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: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 Jan 2025, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024.

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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