Qwen3 30B A3B vs QwQ 32B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 57 and 53 on our weighted score.
Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3 30B A3B
57/100- ECI136.2
- Price$0.108 / $0.475
- Context131K
Alibaba (Qwen)
QwQ 32B
53/100- ECI137.5
- Price$0.53 / $0.70
- Context131K
- Our pick
Google
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
67/100- ECI133.8
- Price$0.12 / $0.48
- Context1.05M
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 Qwen3 30B A3B (57) and QwQ 32B (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. QwQ 32B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwQ 32BCapabilities Index (ECI): QwQ 32B 137.5 · 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 · QwQ 32B $0.573 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 · QwQ 32B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Qwen3 30B A3B: Text · QwQ 32B: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingQwen3 30B A3B and QwQ 32BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 30B A3B | QwQ 32B | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 59 | 61 | 57 |
| Price | 25% | 80 | 59 | 79 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 35 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 25 | 25 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 57/100 | 53/100 | 67/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 136.2 | 137.5 (best) | 133.8 |
| ECI rank | #126 of 165 | #123 of 165 (best) | #132 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 61.7% | 65.3% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 62.8% (best) | 59.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.108 (best) | $0.53 | $0.12 |
| Output | $0.475 (best) | $0.70 | $0.48 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.20 (best) | $0.573 | $0.21 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 14 providers | Median of 2 providers | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | Yes |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 14 (best) | 2 | 2 |
| Released | Apr 28, 2025 | Mar 5, 2025 | Jun 17, 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.
Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
QwQ 32B$6.70
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 30B A3B, QwQ 32B 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 Qwen3 30B A3B (57) and QwQ 32B (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. QwQ 32B wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 30B A3B, QwQ 32B 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); QwQ 32B costs $0.53 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). 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 $0.573 for QwQ 32B (2.9× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
QwQ 32B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): QwQ 32B 137.5 (#123 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 (133.1–141.3 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, QwQ 32B and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, QwQ 32B 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 30B A3B and 131,072 for QwQ 32B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384, QwQ 32B up to 8,192, 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; QwQ 32B accepts text; 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 and QwQ 32B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; 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; QwQ 32B came out Mar 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: QwQ 32B 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.