Model comparison
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs Mistral Small 3
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 9.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 20 shared benchmarks.
Google
Mistral AISummary
- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 8 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads 60.9 to 32.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 80% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 6.7% for Mistral Small 3.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.25 / $1.50 for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 31.2 |
| Released | 2026-03-03 | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 33K |
| Max output | 66K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.50 | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 38 | 24 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1400 | 1246 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1256 | — |
| SciCode | 41.9% | — |
| WeirdML | 52.2% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 797.73 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| DeepResearch Bench | 37.3% | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 25% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.47 | 127.07 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 67.2% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 8.2% | — |
| CritPt | 1.1% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 3% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 63.3% | — |
| DTBench | 76.8% | — |
| LMCA | 35% | — |
| ForecastBench | 54.4 | — |
Math Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 80% | 6.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1428 | 1240 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 27.7% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104), Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 81.8% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1202 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 8.6% | — |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 8.2% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1240 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1411 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1461 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1424 | 1203 |
| LMArena German | 1429 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1413 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1392 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1420 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1421 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1377 | 1214 |
Long Context Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1394 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1416 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1195 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1417 | 1217 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 707 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than Mistral Small 3?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.8 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 9.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Mistral Small 3?
Mistral Small 3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite lists at $0.25 and $1.50.
Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.8 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and Mistral Small 3 share?
20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.