Compare / DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 89 results on 6 sources that measured both models.

DeepSeekDeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 Released 17 Oct 2026 · $0.30 in · $1.20 out
GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Released 21 Jul 2026 · $0.30 in · $2.50 out
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 wins 5113 too close to callGemini 3.5 Flash-Lite wins 25

Of the 89 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 20 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-20-96eb40c3ec63). See also DeepSeek vs Google, every model from both labs.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite? The short answer

Pick DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017: it scores higher (Spring Prompt overall 44 against 25) and costs less. Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite only if speed matters more: it writes faster.

  • Spring Prompt overall: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 44, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 25 (out of 100; how the score works).
  • DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is cheaper to run: $0.002 against $0.002 per product listing on CatalogBench (25% less).
  • DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 45.1 against 22.2.
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite writes faster: 398 tokens a second against 212.
  • DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is newer: released 17 Oct 2026, against 21 Jul 2026 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.
  • On our own benchmarks, on the results both models have: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 does better for decks from an analysis, user surveys and marketing planning; Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite for speed under pressure.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 does better for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.

Head to head

44
Spring Prompt overall
25
45.1
Intelligence Index
22.2
$0.52
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.85
212
Output speed, tokens a second
398
1,048,576
Context window, tokens
1,048,576

Every fact side by side

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Price per million tokens$0.30 in · $1.20 out$0.30 in · $2.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.52$0.85
Cheapest host, blended–$0.85 (Google)
Cost per product listing (CatalogBench)$0.002$0.002
Cached input, per million$0.006 cached input$0.030 cached input
Intelligence Index45.122.2
Spring Prompt overall4425
Output speed, tokens a second212398
Context window1,048,576 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Released17 Oct 2026 (newer)21 Jul 2026
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 the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live 21 of 24 19 of 24
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is 12 of 24 21 of 24
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled 5 of 13 10 of 13
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending 11 of 24 20 of 24
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 22 of 168 77 of 168
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 46 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 22 of 202 94 of 202
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality not measured 50 of 189
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers not measured 63 of 153
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) 21 of 27 2 of 27

From our research

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureDeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
BulletBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results
Cost per game · Bullet 60sUS dollars, lower is better 13 · 16 of 32 measured $0.0047low reasoning $0.0058
Ladder Elo · Bullet 60sladder Elo, higher is better 27 · 5 of 32 measured 147low reasoning 780
Games lost on time · Bullet 60s% of games, lower is better 29 · 1 of 32 measured 87.5%low reasoning 0.0%
CatalogBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results
Cost per productUS dollars, lower is better 4 · 5 of 24 measured $0.0015 $0.0020
Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better 19 · 20 of 24 measured 21.4% 17.9%
Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better 21 · 17 of 24 measured 0.0% 3.6%
DeckBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results
Cost per deckUS dollars, lower is better 7 · 5 of 24 measured $0.0255 $0.0126
Deck ratingrating, higher is betterThe rating weighs each win by how strong the other deck was; the win rate counts wins against whichever decks a model happened to meet, so the two can disagree. 12 · 21 of 24 measured 1,145 674
Accurate decks% of tasks, higher is better 14 · 20 of 24 measured 33.3% 0.0%
ROASBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results
Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better 11 · 20 of 24 measured 41.4 25.4
Audience scorescore out of 100, higher is better 9 · 19 of 24 measured 65.3 45.0
Business scorescore out of 100, higher is better 11 · 22 of 24 measured 38.3 12.6
SurveyBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results
Analysis ratingrating, higher is betterThe rating weighs each win by how strong the other analysis was; the win rate counts wins against whichever analyses a model happened to meet, so the two can disagree. 5 · 10 of 13 measured 1,221 666
Cost per taskUS dollars, lower is better 4 · 1 of 12 measured $0.0373 $0.0144
Analysis scorepoints of 100, higher is better 4 · 11 of 13 measured 90.2 56.7
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 16 · 97 of 249 measured 45.1max reasoning 22.2
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 27 · 120 of 248 measured 43.3%max reasoning 18.8%
Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 16 · 57 of 118 measured 33.8%max reasoning 1.0%
Show all 89 results (71 more)
MeasureDeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
BulletBench measured by Spring Prompt · 2 results
Invalid moves · Bullet 60s% of moves, lower is better 1 · 1 of 32 measured 0.0%low reasoning 0.0%
Median move time · Bullet 60smilliseconds, lower is better 31 · 15 of 32 measured 3.3 slow reasoning 0.9 s
CatalogBench measured by Spring Prompt · 28 results
Channel compliance% of products, higher is better 1 · 24 of 24 measured 100.0% 98.2%
Channel rules broken% of products, lower is better 19 · 22 of 24 measured 1.2% 1.8%
Channel rules broken · sales brief% of products, lower is better 22 · 18 of 24 measured 2.4% 1.2%
Claims to check% of products, lower is better 19 · 21 of 24 measured 1.2% 1.8%
Claims to check · sales brief% of products, lower is better 18 · 20 of 24 measured 3.6% 7.7%
Conflicts caught% of conflicts, higher is better 1 · 24 of 24 measured 100.0% 84.9%
Content quality% of checks, higher is better 20 · 19 of 24 measured 95.3% 95.5%
Content quality · sales brief% of checks, higher is better 19 · 19 of 24 measured 94.8% 94.8%
Decision accuracy% of decisions, higher is better 18 · 19 of 24 measured 94.9% 93.4%
Failed outputs% of products, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured 0.0% 0.0%
Failed outputs · sales brief% of products, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured 0.0% 0.0%
Field accuracy% of missing fields, higher is better 10 · 17 of 24 measured 93.7% 92.5%
Invented values% of filled values, lower is better 13 · 8 of 24 measured 1.7% 0.8%
Missing UK information% of products, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured 0.0% 0.0%
Missing UK information · sales brief% of products, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured 0.0% 0.0%
Not findable% of products, lower is better 5 · 24 of 24 measured 3.6% 20.2%
Not findable · sales brief% of products, lower is better 7 · 24 of 24 measured 2.4% 21.4%
Publish-ready listings% of products, higher is better 19 · 21 of 24 measured 40.5% 35.1%
Publish-ready listings · sales brief% of products, higher is better 21 · 19 of 24 measured 8.3% 10.7%
Time per productseconds, lower is better 3 · 1 of 24 measured 6.70 3.30
Unsupported claimsclaims per product, lower is better 21 · 18 of 24 measured 1.70 1.18
Unsupported claims% of products, lower is better 20 · 17 of 24 measured 44.6% 33.3%
Unsupported claims · sales briefclaims per product, lower is better 22 · 17 of 24 measured 4.01 3.44
Unsupported claims · sales brief% of products, lower is better 23 · 17 of 24 measured 85.7% 78.6%
Wrong attributes% of products, lower is better 13 · 23 of 24 measured 17.9% 34.5%
Wrong attributes · sales brief% of products, lower is better 21 · 22 of 24 measured 22.0% 35.1%
Wrong category or variant% of products, lower is better 2 · 23 of 24 measured 0.6% 9.5%
Wrong category or variant · sales brief% of products, lower is better 3 · 23 of 24 measured 1.2% 10.7%
DeckBench measured by Spring Prompt · 14 results
Caveat dropped% of tasks, lower is better 12 · 12 of 24 measured 16.7% 16.7%
Clean layout% of tasks, higher is better 20 · 14 of 24 measured 16.7% 33.3%
Design quality% of the maximum, higher is better 9 · 15 of 24 measured 68.5% 60.2%
Draft figure quoted% of tasks, lower is better 19 · 19 of 24 measured 50.0% 50.0%
Findings missing% of tasks, lower is better 1 · 23 of 24 measured 0.0% 33.3%
Head-to-head win rate% of comparisons, higher is betterThe rating weighs each win by how strong the other deck was; the win rate counts wins against whichever decks a model happened to meet, so the two can disagree. 14 · 21 of 24 measured 53.3% 29.9%
Layout defects% of tasks, lower is better 20 · 14 of 24 measured 83.3% 66.7%
Misleading metric used% of tasks, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured 0.0% 0.0%
Presentable decks% of tasks, higher is better 12 · 12 of 24 measured 0.0% 0.0%
Recommendation late or wrong% of tasks, lower is better 9 · 22 of 24 measured 16.7% 83.3%
Slides needing work% of tasks, lower is better 16 · 2 of 24 measured 66.7% 16.7%
Time per deckseconds, lower is better 7 · 1 of 24 measured 73.0 15.2
Unsupported claims% of tasks, lower is better 11 · 11 of 24 measured 16.7% 16.7%
Unsupported numbers% of tasks, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured 0.0% 0.0%
ROASBench measured by Spring Prompt · 6 results
Consistency scorescore out of 100, higher is better 15 · 14 of 24 measured 20.2 21.8
Contribution profitsimulated US dollars, higher is better 10 · 21 of 24 measured $585,572 $11,834
Cost of a runUS dollars, lower is better 8 · 5 of 24 measured $0.0799 $0.0390
Months over budgetmonths of 12, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured 0 0
Planning scorescore out of 100, higher is better 20 · 7 of 24 measured 54.3 54.9
Return on ad spendprofit per $1 spent, higher is better 12 · 21 of 24 measured $0.44 $0.01
SurveyBench measured by Spring Prompt · 17 results
Head-to-head win rate% of comparisons, higher is betterThe rating weighs each win by how strong the other analysis was; the win rate counts wins against whichever analyses a model happened to meet, so the two can disagree. 5 · 10 of 13 measured 60.2% 27.1%
Leading or double-barrelled questions% of tasks, lower is better 3 · 12 of 13 measured 11.1% 77.8%
Mistaken next steps% of tasks, lower is better 1 · 9 of 13 measured 0.0% 44.4%
Numbers right% of answers, higher is better 1 · 10 of 13 measured 100.0% 75.5%
Objectives unanswerable% of tasks, lower is better 7 · 12 of 13 measured 11.1% 33.3%
Precision ignored% of tasks, lower is better 1 · 11 of 13 measured 0.0% 100.0%
Research scorepoints of 100, higher is better 4 · 12 of 13 measured 90.9 55.6
Sound research% of tasks, higher is better 3 · 6 of 13 measured 33.3% 0.0%
Stakeholder's view presumed% of tasks, lower is better 1 · 12 of 13 measured 0.0% 55.6%
Survey plan scorepoints of 100, higher is better 4 · 12 of 13 measured 92.5 53.1
Survey structure% of tasks, lower is better 10 · 12 of 13 measured 33.3% 55.6%
Time per taskseconds, lower is better 6 · 1 of 12 measured 134 16.3
Traps handled% of traps, higher is better 5 · 13 of 13 measured 91.3% 56.5%
Traps missed% of tasks, lower is better 5 · 10 of 13 measured 44.4% 100.0%
Unsupported findings% of tasks, lower is better 4 · 6 of 13 measured 44.4% 66.7%
Wrong numbers% of tasks, lower is better 1 · 11 of 13 measured 0.0% 100.0%
Wrong recommendation% of tasks, lower is better 3 · 7 of 13 measured 11.1% 22.2%
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 19 · 78 of 239 measured 82.7%max reasoning 76.0%
Output speedtokens per second, higher is better 15 · 2 of 78 measured 212max reasoning 398
SciCode% of problems, higher is better 24 · 81 of 119 measured 55.9%max reasoning 41.3%
Time to first answer tokenseconds, lower is better 46 · 38 of 78 measured 10.5max reasoning 4.69

Quick answers

Is DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 better than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

Pick DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017: it scores higher (Spring Prompt overall 44 against 25) and costs less. Pick Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite only if speed matters more: it writes faster.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is cheaper to run: $0.002 against $0.002 per product listing on CatalogBench (25% less).

Which is faster, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite writes about 398 tokens a second on its usual API, against 212 for DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 (Artificial Analysis).

Which is better for product listings, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite ranks 19 of 24 models on sale for turning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live, against 21 for DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017.

Which is better for decks from an analysis, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 ranks 12 of 24 models on sale for turning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is, against 21 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

Which is better for user surveys, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 ranks 5 of 13 models on sale for planning a user survey and reading its results without being misled, against 10 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

Which is better for marketing planning, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 ranks 11 of 24 models on sale for planning a year of ad spend without overspending, against 20 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

Run DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite on your own prompt

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