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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3 30B A3B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66, Qwen3 30B A3B 57). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 30B A3B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    57/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.108 / $0.475
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 30B A3B

  2. Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    66/100
    • ECI140.6
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash

  3. Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    67/100
    • ECI133.8
    • Price$0.12 / $0.48
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3 30B A3B 57/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemini 2.5 Flash for raw capability and Qwen3 30B A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 2.5 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 · Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8
  • Lowest priceQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 30B A3B $0.20 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 $0.21 · Gemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Qwen3 30B A3B: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3 30B A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 30B A3BGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%596557
Price25%805179
Inputs & features15%3510090
Context window10%256161
Overall100%57/10066/10067/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen3 30B A3B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen)Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Google
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)136.2140.6 (best)133.8
ECI rank#126 of 165#110 of 165 (best)#132 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions61.7%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics62.8%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.108 (best)$0.30$0.12
Output$0.475 (best)$2.50$0.48
Cached input—$0.03—
Blended (3:1)$0.20 (best)$0.85$0.21
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 14 providersOfficial Google APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens65,536 tokens (best)65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoYesYes
AudioNoYesYes
VideoNoYesYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—gemini-2.5-flash—
API providers1432 (best)2
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Jun 17, 2025Jun 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 2025Jan 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.

  • Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 30B A3B, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3 30B A3B 57/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemini 2.5 Flash for raw capability and Qwen3 30B A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 30B A3B, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17?

Qwen3 30B A3B is cheaper at $0.108 input / $0.475 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 costs $0.12 input / $0.48 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.20 per million tokens for Qwen3 30B A3B versus $0.21 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 (1× as much) and $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash (4.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 2.5 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165), Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 (#126 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (138.4–142.1 vs 130.8–138.5), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 30B A3B, Gemini 2.5 Flash and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash 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 and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 131,072 for Qwen3 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 30B A3B accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 30B A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 came out Jun 17, 2025; Qwen3 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash Jan 2025, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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