Mistral Small 3.2 vs GPT-5 Nano vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 71, GPT-5 Nano 70, Mistral Small 3.2 60). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Mistral AIMistral Small 3.2
60/100- ECI131.7
- Price$0.10 / $0.30
- Context128K
OpenAIGPT-5 Nano
70/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.05 / $0.40
- Context400K
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
71/100- ECI133.9
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 71/100, GPT-5 Nano 70/100, Mistral Small 3.2 60/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Nano for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-5 NanoCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Nano 139.4 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7
- Lowest priceGPT-5 NanoGPT-5 Nano $0.138 · Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · GPT-5 Nano 400,000 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · GPT-5 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 Nano | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 55 | 65 | 58 |
| Price | 25% | 89 | 91 | 86 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 70 | 100 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 44 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 60/100 | 70/100 | 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 NanoOpenAI | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 131.7 | 139.4 (best) | 133.9 |
| ECI rank | #123 of 148 | #102 of 148 (best) | #118 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 49.1% | 69.4% (best) | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 20.0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 30.3% | 81.1% (best) | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 11.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 | $0.05 (best) | $0.10 |
| Output | $0.30 (best) | $0.40 | $0.40 |
| Cached input | — | $0.005 (best) | $0.01 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 | $0.138 (best) | $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 | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-small-2506 | gpt-5-nano | gemini-2.5-flash-lite |
| API providers | 6 | 21 (best) | 20 |
| Released | Jun 20, 2025 | Aug 7, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2025 | May 30, 2024 | 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 Nano$1.30
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Small 3.2, GPT-5 Nano or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 71/100, GPT-5 Nano 70/100, Mistral Small 3.2 60/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Nano for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.2, GPT-5 Nano or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?
GPT-5 Nano is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Mistral Small 3.2 costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.138 per million tokens for GPT-5 Nano versus $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1.1× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-5 Nano scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Nano 139.4 (#102 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 (134.9–141.7 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, GPT-5 Nano and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5 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 Nano and 128,000 for Mistral Small 3.2. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, GPT-5 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 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 Nano and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
GPT-5 Nano is the newest, released Aug 7, 2025. 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 Nano May 30, 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.
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