Mistral Small 3.2 vs Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 46 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
MetaLlama-3.1-8B-Instruct
46/100- ECI116.6
- Price$0.152 / $0.167
- Context128K
- 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 Mistral Small 3.2 (60) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on capability, inputs & features and 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 · Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6
- Lowest priceMistral Small 3.2Mistral Small 3.2 $0.15 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct $0.156 · 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 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingMistral Small 3.2 and Llama-3.1-8B-InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Small 3.2 | Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 55 | 36 | 58 |
| Price | 25% | 89 | 88 | 86 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 50 | 25 | 100 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 24 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 60/100 | 46/100 | 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 | Llama-3.1-8B-InstructMeta | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 131.7 | 116.6 | 133.9 (best) |
| ECI rank | #123 of 148 | #145 of 148 | #118 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 49.1% (best) | 27.0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 30.3% (best) | 1.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.152 | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.30 | $0.167 (best) | $0.40 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.01 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 (best) | $0.156 | $0.175 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Median of 9 providers | Official Google API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 4,096 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mistral-small-2506 | — | gemini-2.5-flash-lite |
| API providers | 6 | 9 | 20 (best) |
| Released | Jun 20, 2025 | Jul 23, 2024 | Jun 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2025 | Dec 2023 | 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
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct$1.85
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Small 3.2, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 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 Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (46). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.2, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 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). Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct costs $0.152 input / $0.167 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers); 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 $0.15 per million tokens for Mistral Small 3.2 versus $0.156 for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (1× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.2× 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), Mistral Small 3.2 131.7 (#123 of 148) and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 116.6 (#145 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 126.6–133.9), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mistral Small 3.2, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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?
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 Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct up to 4,096, 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; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 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 Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct 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; Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct came out Jul 23, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct Dec 2023, 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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