The closest alternative to Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 05-06 is Gemini 3.5 Flash — comparable intelligence (43.3 vs —); for a cheaper option, MiniMax M3 runs $0.300/M vs $1.25/M; for more speed, Relace Apply 3 hits 3.1k t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
Gemini 3.5 Flash is the closest alternative to Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 05-06, with an Intelligence Index of 43.3 (Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 05-06 scores —) at $1.50 per million input tokens.
Yes — MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per million input tokens versus $1.25 for Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 05-06, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 05-06 — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.