ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Mistral Small 3.2 vs Ministral 3B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 60 and 49 on our weighted score, though Ministral 3B is 43% 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. Mistral AI

    Ministral 3B

    Released Oct 16, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI118.1
    • Price$0.10 / $0.10
    • Context128K
    Full specs Remove Ministral 3B
  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 Ministral 3B (49). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 3B wins on price. 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 · Ministral 3B 118.1
  • Lowest priceMinistral 3BMinistral 3B $0.10 · 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 · Mistral Small 3.2 128,000 · Ministral 3B 128,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.2: Text, Images · Ministral 3B: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingMistral Small 3.2 and Ministral 3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMistral Small 3.2Ministral 3BGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%553858
Price25%899786
Inputs & features15%5025100
Context window10%242461
Overall100%60/10049/10071/100
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 Ministral 3B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite specifications side by side
SpecificationMistral Small 3.2Mistral AIMinistral 3BMistral AIGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)131.7118.1133.9 (best)
ECI rank#123 of 148#144 of 148#118 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions49.1% (best)25.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics30.3%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.10$0.10
Output$0.30$0.10 (best)$0.40
Cached input——$0.01
Blended (3:1)$0.15$0.10 (best)$0.175
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Mistral APIMedian of 1 providersOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window128,000 tokens128,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model IDmistral-small-2506—gemini-2.5-flash-lite
API providers6120 (best)
ReleasedJun 20, 2025Oct 16, 2024Jun 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMar 2025Mar 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
  • Ministral 3B$1.20
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Mistral Small 3.2, Ministral 3B 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 Ministral 3B (49). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Ministral 3B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 3.2, Ministral 3B or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?

Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.10 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 $0.10 per million tokens for Ministral 3B versus $0.15 for Mistral Small 3.2 (1.5× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.7× 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 Ministral 3B 118.1 (#144 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, Ministral 3B 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 Ministral 3B. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 3.2 up to 16,384, Ministral 3B up to 8,192, 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; Ministral 3B 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 Ministral 3B 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; Ministral 3B came out Oct 16, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 3.2 Mar 2025, Ministral 3B Mar 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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