Model comparison
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Ministral 3B
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 8.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 4 shared benchmarks.
Google
Mistral AISummary
- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 2 categories and Ministral 3B in 1 category; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads 50.1 to 10.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 83.3% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and 25.3% for Ministral 3B.
- Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.10 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
- Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 131K.
- Ministral 3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | |
| Noometry Index | 41.5 | 26.2 |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2024-10-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 131K |
| Max output | 66K | 262K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.30 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.50 | $0.10 |
| Results tracked | 39 | 6 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1440 | — |
| SciCode | 41.3% | — |
| WeirdML | 39% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1453 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 765.27 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 29.3% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 10% | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Ministral 3B: 18.4 (#282)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| DTBench | 83.5% | 51.7% |
| LMCA | 37.6% | 5.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.13 | 118.1 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 10.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 60.4% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 53.5% | — |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1441 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 19% | — |
Math Too close to call
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Ministral 3B: 26.6 (#258)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 26% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 71.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 13% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1433 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 14.4% |
Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Ministral 3B: 10.4 (#302)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% | 25.3% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 7.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1435 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1268 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1427 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1469 | — |
| LMArena French | 1451 | — |
| LMArena German | 1454 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1427 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1407 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1443 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1442 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1420 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1435 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Ministral 3B: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | Ministral 3B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1435 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1420 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1559 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1445 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Ministral 3B?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 26.2 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 8.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Ministral 3B?
Ministral 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.10 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Ministral 3B share?
4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Ministral 3B has 6.