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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3 30B A3B vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 59 and 57 on our weighted score.

  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. OpenAI

    GPT-4.1 mini

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    59/100
    • ECI134.9
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1 mini
  3. Our pick

    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

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (59) and Qwen3 30B A3B (57). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 30B A3BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 · 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 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 miniGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · GPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Qwen3 30B A3B: Text · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · 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 A3BGPT-4.1 miniGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%595857
Price25%805579
Inputs & features15%357090
Context window10%256161
Overall100%57/10059/10067/100
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 GPT-4.1 mini vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-4.1 miniOpenAIGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Google
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)136.2 (best)134.9133.8
ECI rank#126 of 165 (best)#129 of 165#132 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions61.7%65.9% (best)—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics62.8% (best)44.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—12.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.108 (best)$0.40$0.12
Output$0.475 (best)$1.60$0.48
Cached input—$0.10—
Blended (3:1)$0.20 (best)$0.70$0.21
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 14 providersOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 2 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,047,576 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens32,768 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoYesYes
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—gpt-4.1-mini—
API providers1428 (best)2
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Apr 14, 2025Jun 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 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.

  • Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 30B A3B, GPT-4.1 mini or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (59) and Qwen3 30B A3B (57). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 30B A3B, GPT-4.1 mini 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); GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI 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 $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (3.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 30B A3B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 (#126 of 165), GPT-4.1 mini 134.9 (#129 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (130.8–138.5 vs 131.1–136.4), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 30B A3B, GPT-4.1 mini and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 30B A3B 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 Preview 06-17 and GPT-4.1 mini have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,047,576 tokens), against 131,072 for Qwen3 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, 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; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 30B A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Qwen3 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024, 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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