Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Mistral Small 3.2
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google or Mistral Small 3.2 by Mistral? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite scores 8.6 points higher (15.6 vs 7.0) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($156 vs $122; both mid-range class). Pick Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mistral Small 3.2.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Mistral Small 3.2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 7.0 | −55.1% Mistral Small 3.2 is 55.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $121.78 | −21.9% Mistral Small 3.2 is 21.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.15s | 12.50s | +103.3% Mistral Small 3.2 is 103.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $0.07 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.2 vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 55.1% less intelligence, 21.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 103.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Mistral Small 3.2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteMistral Small 3.2Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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