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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 8B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs DeepSeek V3 0324

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 56 and 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 8B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI136.2
    • Price$0.18 / $0.70
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 8B
  2. 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

  3. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek V3 0324

    Released Mar 24, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI135.9
    • Price$0.24 / $0.90
    • Context164K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek V3 0324
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 Qwen3 8B (56) and DeepSeek V3 0324 (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 8BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 · DeepSeek V3 0324 135.9 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Qwen3 8B $0.31 · DeepSeek V3 0324 $0.405 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · DeepSeek V3 0324 163,840 · Qwen3 8B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteQwen3 8B: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · DeepSeek V3 0324: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 8B and DeepSeek V3 0324Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 8BGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteDeepSeek V3 0324
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%615860
Price25%748668
Inputs & features15%3510025
Context window10%246128
Overall100%56/10071/10054/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 8B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs DeepSeek V3 0324 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 8BAlibaba (Qwen)Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleDeepSeek V3 0324DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)136.2 (best)133.9135.9
ECI rank#113 of 148 (best)#118 of 148#114 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.8%—67.6% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics56.1% (best)—37.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.18$0.10 (best)$0.24
Output$0.70$0.40 (best)$0.90
Cached input—$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.31$0.175 (best)$0.405
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Google APIMedian of 5 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)163,840 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens65,536 tokens163,840 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYesYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3-8bgemini-2.5-flash-lite—
API providers120 (best)5
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Jun 17, 2025Mar 24, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 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 8B$3.20
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
  • DeepSeek V3 0324$4.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 8B, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or DeepSeek V3 0324?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Qwen3 8B (56) and DeepSeek V3 0324 (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 8B, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or DeepSeek V3 0324?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Qwen3 8B costs $0.18 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); DeepSeek V3 0324 costs $0.24 input / $0.90 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.175 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite versus $0.31 for Qwen3 8B (1.8× as much) and $0.405 for DeepSeek V3 0324 (2.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 8B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 8B 136.2 (#113 of 148), DeepSeek V3 0324 135.9 (#114 of 148) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.7–138.1 vs 132.4–138.0), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 8B, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and DeepSeek V3 0324 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 8B 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 163,840 for DeepSeek V3 0324 and 131,072 for Qwen3 8B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 8B up to 8,192, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, DeepSeek V3 0324 up to 163,840 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 8B accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; DeepSeek V3 0324 accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 8B and DeepSeek V3 0324 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Qwen3 8B came out Apr 28, 2025; DeepSeek V3 0324 came out Mar 24, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 8B Apr 2025, 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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