ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.2 vs DeepSeek-R1 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 51 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 14% cheaper per token.

  1. Mistral AI

    Mistral Small 3.2

    Released Jun 20, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI131.7
    • Price$0.10 / $0.30
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Mistral Small 3.2

  2. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-R1

    Released Jan 20, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.0
    • Price$0.70 / $2.60
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-R1
  3. 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
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 Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and DeepSeek-R1 (51). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. DeepSeek-R1 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityDeepSeek-R1Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-R1 139.0 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
  • Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · DeepSeek-R1: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.2 and DeepSeek-R1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.2DeepSeek-R1Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%556458
Price25%894786
Inputs & features15%5035100
Context window10%242461
Overall100%60/10051/10071/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Mistral Small 3.2 vs DeepSeek-R1 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.2Mistral AIDeepSeek-R1DeepSeekGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)131.7139.0 (best)133.9
ECI rank#123 of 148#104 of 148 (best)#118 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions49.1%71.7% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics30.3%53.3% (best)—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10 (best)$0.70$0.10 (best)
Output$0.30 (best)$2.60$0.40
Cached input——$0.01
Blended (3:1)$0.15 (best)$1.18$0.175
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 11 providersOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens128,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens32,768 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningNoYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model IDmistral-small-2506—gemini-2.5-flash-lite
API providers61220 (best)
ReleasedJun 20, 2025Jan 20, 2025Jun 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMar 2025Jul 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.

  • Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
  • DeepSeek-R1$12.20
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Small 3.2, DeepSeek-R1 or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and DeepSeek-R1 (51). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. DeepSeek-R1 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.2, DeepSeek-R1 or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?

Mistral Small 3.2 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price); DeepSeek-R1 costs $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.2× as much) and $1.18 for DeepSeek-R1 (7.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

DeepSeek-R1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (136.2–140.4 vs 129.8–136.3), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3.2, DeepSeek-R1 and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek-R1 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2 and 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Mistral Small 3.2 accepts text and images; DeepSeek-R1 accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Mistral Small 3.2 and DeepSeek-R1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mistral Small 3.2 is the newest, released Jun 20, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, DeepSeek-R1 Jul 2024, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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