Model comparison
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Magistral Small
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index. Magistral Small costs 2.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 9 shared benchmarks.
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Mistral AISummary
- They share 9 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher in 4 categories and Magistral Small in 0 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.6 Flash leads 58.8 to 6.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-1: 91.2% for Gemini 3.6 Flash and 5% for Magistral Small.
- Magistral Small is cheaper at $0.50 / $1.50 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 128K.
- Magistral Small has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | |
| Noometry Index | 54.1 | 30.2 |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2025-06-10 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 128K |
| Max output | 66K | 40K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.75 | $0.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.75 | $1.50 |
| Results tracked | 46 | 10 |
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Category by category
Coding Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 50.0 (#48), Magistral Small: 38.4 (#176)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 52.7% | 35.2% |
| DeepSWE | 46.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 34.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1538 | — |
| WeirdML | 56.1% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1491 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 715.52 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 32.3 (#65), Magistral Small: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 46.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
Reasoning Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 58.8 (#22), Magistral Small: 6.8 (#350)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | 0% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 91.2% | 5% |
| CritPt | 10.6% | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 43% | 3% |
| DTBench | 95.5% | 61.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.25 | 133.19 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 6.3% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1485 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 30% | — |
| LMCA | 44.9% | — |
Math Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 57.3 (#40), Magistral Small: 26.2 (#261)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 94.2% | 30% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 58.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 22% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 70.8% | — |
| ProofBench | 36% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1505 | — |
Knowledge Gemini 3.6 Flash leads
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 67.8 (#8), Magistral Small: 30.9 (#223)
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | 56.1% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1488 | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 38.5 (#64), Magistral Small: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1298 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 31.2% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 23.3% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1456 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 56.5 (#19), Magistral Small: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1469 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1531 | — |
| LMArena French | 1504 | — |
| LMArena German | 1478 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1476 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1431 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1487 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1475 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 77.0 (#33), Magistral Small: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1466 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 45.1 (#50), Magistral Small: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1474 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 68.2 (#27), Magistral Small: —
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Magistral Small |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1479 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1604 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash better than Magistral Small?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.1 to 30.2 on the Noometry Index. Magistral Small costs 2.0× 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 Magistral Small?
Magistral Small is cheaper. It lists at $0.50 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.6 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.
Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or Magistral Small better for coding?
Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.0 versus 38.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 3.6 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.6 Flash and Magistral Small share?
9 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.6 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Magistral Small has 10.