ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 62 and 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.1 24B

    Released Mar 17, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI127.5
    • Price$0.229 / $0.436
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.1 24B
  2. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    71/100
    • ECI133.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

  3. Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    62/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B $0.281 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Mistral Small 3.1 24B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.1 24B: Text, Images · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.1 24B and Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.1 24BGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%505852
Price25%768672
Inputs & features15%6010050
Context window10%2461100
Overall100%55/10071/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Small 3.1 24B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.1 24BMistral AIGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.5133.9 (best)129.7
ECI rank#132 of 148#118 of 148 (best)#126 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions47.5%—51.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics5.8%—7.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.229$0.10 (best)$0.225
Output$0.436$0.40 (best)$0.69
Cached input—$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.281$0.175 (best)$0.341
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 2 providersOfficial Google APIMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningNoYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model ID—gemini-2.5-flash-lite—
API providers220 (best)4
ReleasedMar 17, 2025Jun 17, 2025Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJun 2024Jan 2025Aug 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.

  • Mistral Small 3.1 24B$3.16
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Small 3.1 24B, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B (55). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.1 24B, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Mistral Small 3.1 24B costs $0.229 input / $0.436 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct costs $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). 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 $0.281 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B (1.6× as much) and $0.341 for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148), Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.1 24B 127.5 (#132 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 124.8–131.4), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3.1 24B, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 1,048,576 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.1 24B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.1 24B up to 16,384, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B accepts text and images; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.1 24B and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; Mistral Small 3.1 24B came out Mar 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.1 24B Jun 2024, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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