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DeepSeek-R1 vs Gemini 3 Flash

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

DeepSeek-R1 specs · Gemini 3 Flash specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceDeepSeek-R1

    DeepSeek-R1 publishes pricing ($2.19 / 1M output tokens) while Gemini 3 Flash does not.

  • Context windowGemini 3 Flash

    Gemini 3 Flash accepts 1.0M tokens vs 128K, 8.2× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesGemini 3 Flash

    Gemini 3 Flash supports 4 modalities (text, vision, audio, video) vs 1 for DeepSeek-R1.

  • OpennessDeepSeek-R1

    DeepSeek-R1 ships open weights (MIT); Gemini 3 Flash is API-only.

It's a genuine coin-flip between DeepSeek-R1 and Gemini 3 Flash: 2 category wins each, with the rest tied. DeepSeek-R1 publishes pricing ($2.19 / 1M output tokens) while Gemini 3 Flash does not. Gemini 3 Flash accepts 1.0M tokens vs 128K, 8.2× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, DeepSeek-R1 handles text while Gemini 3 Flash handles text, vision, audio, video, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. DeepSeek-R1 ships open weights (MIT); Gemini 3 Flash is API-only.

Gemini 3 Flash is the newer of the two, released 11 months after DeepSeek-R1, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. DeepSeek-R1 is usually picked for reasoning and math workloads, while Gemini 3 Flash sees more deployments in rag and summarization. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecDeepSeek-R1Gemini 3 Flash
ProviderDeepSeekGoogle
ReleasedJan 2025Dec 2025
Modalitiestexttext, vision, audio, video
Context window128K tokens1.0M tokens
Max output,65.5K tokens
Input · 1M$0.55 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$2.19 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2024-072025-01
Open weightsYes (MIT)No
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$4.94 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$49.35 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$95.64 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • DeepSeek-R1$0.165
  • Gemini 3 FlashPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

DeepSeek-R1Gemini 3 Flash
  • GPQA71.5
Pick DeepSeek-R1 if

DeepSeek-R1 fits when…

  • Open-weight reasoning model on par with o1
  • MIT license
  • Cheap reasoning per token
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (MIT).
Pick Gemini 3 Flash if

Gemini 3 Flash fits when…

  • 1M-token context at mid-tier price
  • Very fast, good for interactive UX
  • Strong vision support
  • Long-context tasks, handles 1.0M tokens vs 128K for DeepSeek-R1.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision, audio, video.
Don't want either?

Consider DeepSeek-V3

DeepSeek's flagship 671B-parameter MoE, frontier-level quality at a tiny fraction of frontier prices.

See DeepSeek-V3 specsDeepSeek-R1 vs DeepSeek-V3Gemini 3 Flash vs DeepSeek-V3

Frequently asked

  • Is DeepSeek-R1 or Gemini 3 Flash cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Gemini 3 Flash accepts 1.0M tokens vs 128K for DeepSeek-R1.
  • Is DeepSeek-R1 or Gemini 3 Flash better for coding?
    Both DeepSeek-R1 and Gemini 3 Flash are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    DeepSeek-R1 ships open weights (MIT). Gemini 3 Flash is API-only.
  • When were DeepSeek-R1 and Gemini 3 Flash released?
    DeepSeek-R1 was released by DeepSeek on 2025-01-20. Gemini 3 Flash was released by Google on 2025-12-09.
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