Mistral Small 3.2 vs GPT-5.4 nano vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 68 and 60 on our weighted score, though Mistral Small 3.2 is 14% cheaper per token.
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.2
60/100- ECI131.7
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
OpenAIGPT-5.4 nano
68/100- ECI145.8
- Price$0.20 / $1.25
- Context400K
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against GPT-5.4 nano (68) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. GPT-5.4 nano wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-5.4 nanoCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 nano 145.8 · 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 · GPT-5.4 nano $0.463 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · GPT-5.4 nano 400,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · GPT-5.4 nano: Text, Images · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingMistral Small 3.2Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Small 3.2 | GPT-5.4 nano | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 55 | 73 | 58 |
| Price | 25% | 89 | 66 | 86 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 70 | 100 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 44 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 60/100 | 68/100 | 71/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AI | GPT-5.4 nanoOpenAI | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 131.7 | 145.8 (best) | 133.9 |
| ECI rank | #123 of 148 | #75 of 148 (best) | #118 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 49.1% | 78.5% (best) | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 44.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 30.3% | 87.8% (best) | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 11.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.20 | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.30 (best) | $1.25 | $0.40 |
| Cached input | — | $0.02 | $0.01 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 (best) | $0.463 | $0.175 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official OpenAI API | Official Google API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 400,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-small-2506 | gpt-5.4-nano | gemini-2.5-flash-lite |
| API providers | 6 | 26 (best) | 20 |
| Released | Jun 20, 2025 | Mar 17, 2026 | Jun 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2025 | Aug 31, 2025 | 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.
- Mistral Small 3.2$1.60
- GPT-5.4 nano$4.50
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Small 3.2, GPT-5.4 nano or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against GPT-5.4 nano (68) and Mistral Small 3.2 (60). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mistral Small 3.2 wins on price. GPT-5.4 nano wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.2, GPT-5.4 nano 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); GPT-5.4 nano costs $0.20 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). 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 $0.463 for GPT-5.4 nano (3.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-5.4 nano scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 nano 145.8 (#75 of 148), Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148) and Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (143.2–147.7 vs 129.8–136.3), so the gap is a real one.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3.2, GPT-5.4 nano and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5.4 nano 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 400,000 for GPT-5.4 nano and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, GPT-5.4 nano up to 128,000, 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; GPT-5.4 nano accepts text and images; 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 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-5.4 nano and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
GPT-5.4 nano is the newest, released Mar 17, 2026. Mistral Small 3.2 came out Jun 20, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, GPT-5.4 nano Aug 31, 2025, 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.
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