Model comparison
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Mistral Small 3
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 26× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.
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Mistral AISummary
- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 8 categories and Mistral Small 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 67.8 to 25.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 94.2% for Gemini 3.6 Flash and 6.7% for Mistral Small 3.
- Mistral Small 3 is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 33K.
- Mistral Small 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 31.2 |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2025-01-30 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 33K |
| Max output | 66K | 16K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.75 | $0.05 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.75 | $0.08 |
| Results tracked | 46 | 24 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1491 | 1246 |
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1538 | — |
| SciCode | 52.7% | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45.3% |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 50.4% |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1485 | 1233 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.25 | 127.07 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | — |
| CritPt | 10.6% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | — |
| DTBench | 95.5% | — |
| LMCA | 44.9% | — |
Math Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | 6.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1505 | 1240 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
| ProofBench | 36% | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1488 | 1202 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
| Confabulations | — | 25.2% |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), Mistral Small 3: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1298 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | — |
Multilingual Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1469 | 1198 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1531 | 1204 |
| LMArena French | 1504 | 1203 |
| LMArena German | 1478 | 1211 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1476 | 1111 |
| LMArena Korean | 1431 | 1188 |
| LMArena Russian | 1487 | 1216 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1475 | — |
Instruction Following Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1466 | 1214 |
Long Context Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1474 | 1246 |
Writing & Preference Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Mistral Small 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1479 | 1234 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | 1195 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | 707 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | 1217 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Mistral Small 3?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index. Mistral Small 3 costs 26× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash 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 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Mistral Small 3 better for coding?
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.6 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Mistral Small 3 share?
21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Mistral Small 3 has 24.