Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs Mistral Small 3

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 15× 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 . 21 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

Mistral Small 3 Mistral AI

31.2

Rank #278 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 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 3.5 Flash Lite leads 64.2 to 32.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 71.1% for Gemini 3.5 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 $0.30 / $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite.
  • Gemini 3.5 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 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
ProviderGoogleMistral AI
Noometry Index41.531.2
Released2026-07-212025-01-30
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M33K
Max output66K16K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$0.05
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$0.08
Results tracked3924

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Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
LMArena Coding14531246
LMArena WebDev1440—
SciCode41.3%—
WeirdML39%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—45.3%
BigCodeBench Complete—50.4%
ALE-Bench765.27—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), Mistral Small 3: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
APEX-Agents29.3%—
GDP.pdf10%—

Reasoning Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
Chess Puzzles22%0%
LMArena Hard Prompts14411233
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13127.07
ARC-AGI-210.3%—
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%—
ARC-AGI-153.5%—
CritPt0%—
Mystery Game Puzzles19%—
DTBench83.5%—
LMCA37.6%—

Math Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202571.1%6.7%
LMArena Math14331240
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)26%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
ProofBench13%—

Knowledge Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
GPQA Diamond83.3%47.3%
LMArena Expert14351202
Confabulations—25.2%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), Mistral Small 3: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
LMArena Vision1268—

Multilingual Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
LMArena Non-English14271198
LMArena Chinese14691204
LMArena French14511203
LMArena German14541211
LMArena Japanese14271111
LMArena Korean14071188
LMArena Russian14431216
LMArena Spanish1442—

Instruction Following Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
LMArena Instruction Following14201214

Long Context Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
LMArena Longer Query14351246

Writing & Preference Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)

BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteMistral Small 3
LMArena Text14351234
LMArena Creative Writing14201195
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1559707
LMArena Multi-Turn14451217

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than Mistral Small 3?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.5 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 15× 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 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 3.5 Flash Lite lists at $0.30 and $2.50.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 33K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and Mistral Small 3 share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.

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