Qwen Flash vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 83 to 69 and 57 on our weighted score, though ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B is 30% cheaper per token.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Flash
69/100- ECI—
- Price$0.05 / $0.40
- Context1M
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
83/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context1.05M
BaiduERNIE 4.5 21B A3B
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.07 / $0.28
- Context131K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Qwen Flash (69) and ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B (57). It leads on inputs & features. ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceERNIE 4.5 21B A3BERNIE 4.5 21B A3B $0.122 · Qwen Flash $0.138 · 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 · Qwen Flash 1,000,000 · ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteQwen Flash: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B: Text
- Self-hostingERNIE 4.5 21B A3BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen Flash | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 87 | 82 | 89 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 45 | 100 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 61 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 69/100 | 83/100 | 57/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen FlashAlibaba (Qwen) | Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle | ERNIE 4.5 21B A3BBaidu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.05 (best) | $0.10 | $0.07 |
| Output | $0.40 | $0.40 | $0.28 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.01 | $0.01 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.138 | $0.175 | $0.122 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Over 256K: $0.25 / $2.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Google API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 8,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | OpenApache-2.0 |
| API model ID | qwen-flash | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | — |
| API providers | 6 | 24 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Jul 28, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 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.
- Qwen Flash$1.30
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
- ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B$1.26
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen Flash, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against Qwen Flash (69) and ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B (57). It leads on inputs & features. ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Qwen Flash, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B?
ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B is cheaper at $0.07 input / $0.28 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Qwen Flash costs $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $0.122 per million tokens for ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B versus $0.138 for Qwen Flash (1.1× as much) and $0.175 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen Flash has not been scored yet, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite has not been scored yet and ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Flash, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. 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 1,000,000 for Qwen Flash and 131,072 for ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen Flash up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B up to 8,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen Flash accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen Flash and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen Flash is the newest, released Jul 28, 2025. ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B came out Jun 30, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Flash Apr 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 Nov 2, 2026.
