Magistral Small vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Mistral AI
Magistral Small
49/100- ECI133.1
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context131K
- Our pick
Google
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
67/100- ECI133.8
- Price$0.12 / $0.48
- Context1.05M
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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 Magistral Small (49). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Capabilities Index (ECI): 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 · Magistral Small $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · 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
- Self-hostingMagistral SmallPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Magistral Small | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 56 | 57 |
| Price | 25% | 53 | 79 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 25 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 49/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 133.1 | 133.8 (best) |
| ECI rank | #134 of 165 | #132 of 165 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 56.1% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 30.0% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.50 | $0.12 (best) |
| Output | $1.50 | $0.48 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.75 | $0.21 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | Yes |
| Video | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | OpenApache 2.0 | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — |
| API providers | 2 | 2 |
| Released | Jun 10, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | 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.
Magistral Small$8.00
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Magistral Small or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Magistral Small (49). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Magistral Small or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17?
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). 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 $0.75 for Magistral Small (3.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): 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 (130.1–136.1 vs 129.4–134.4), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Magistral Small and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 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 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 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 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. 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 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. Knowledge cutoff: 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.