Compare / DeepSeek V3.1 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash

DeepSeek V3.1 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 15 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

DeepSeek V3.1
DeepSeek · profile
Gemini 2.5 Flash
Google · profile
Results compared
15
Shared sources
3

DeepSeek V3.1 or Gemini 2.5 Flash? The short answer

  • DeepSeek V3.1 is cheaper: $0.82 against $0.85 per million tokens, 3% less.
  • They score about the same on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (13.7 and 13.1).
  • On our business benchmarks, DeepSeek V3.1 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

At a glance

DeepSeek V3.1Gemini 2.5 Flash
Price per million tokens$0.55 in · $1.65 out$0.30 in · $2.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.82$0.85
Cheapest host, blended$0.42 (DeepInfra, FP4)$0.42 (Google AI Studio)
Intelligence Index13.713.1
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window163,840 tokens1,048,576 tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseDeepSeek V3.1Gemini 2.5 Flash
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls not measured 74 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 114 of 195 115 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 82 of 187 93 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 20 of 153 66 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricDeepSeek V3.1Gemini 2.5 Flash
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4171,399
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,4021,394
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4321,424
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,4161,400
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4171,409
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,4071,402
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 13.713.1
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 77.9%79.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 14.3%12.1%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 41.5%50.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 56.7%65.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 25.0%13.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 37.4%31.6%
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedAnswer rate% of documents 94.5%99.0%
Vectara Hallucination LeaderboardreportedHallucination rate% of summaries 5.5%7.8%

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is DeepSeek V3.1 better than Gemini 2.5 Flash?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, DeepSeek V3.1 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.1 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

DeepSeek V3.1 costs $0.82 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash.

Run DeepSeek V3.1 and Gemini 2.5 Flash on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.