DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
DeepSeek · May 2025
The open reasoning model that started it all — RL-trained chain-of-thought, MIT licensed, and a research landmark.
Google · Jun 2025
The 2025 fast-tier favorite: hybrid reasoning, full multimodality and a 1M context at $0.30/$2.50.
The verdict
DeepSeek R1 (0528) wins 1 of the 1 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for Gemini 2.5 Flash. Gemini 2.5 Flash is about 1.1x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 2.5 Flash also takes 1.0M of context versus 128K for DeepSeek R1 (0528). And DeepSeek R1 (0528) is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
Benchmark head-to-head 1–0
Specs & pricing
| DeepSeek R1 (0528) | Gemini 2.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | 67.8 | — |
| Input price / 1M | $0.55 | $0.3 |
| Output price / 1M | $2.19 | $2.5 |
| Context window | 128K | 1.0M |
| Max output | 64K | 66K |
| Open weights | yes (MIT) | no |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text | text, image, audio, video |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2025 | Jan 2025 |
| Released | May 2025 | Jun 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $8.79 | $6.75 |
* 10M input + 1.5M output tokens per month at list prices, no caching. Green = better value on that row.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is better, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or Gemini 2.5 Flash?
- DeepSeek R1 (0528) wins 1 of the 1 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for Gemini 2.5 Flash. Gemini 2.5 Flash is about 1.1x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 2.5 Flash also takes 1.0M of context versus 128K for DeepSeek R1 (0528). And DeepSeek R1 (0528) is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
- Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or Gemini 2.5 Flash?
- DeepSeek R1 (0528) costs $0.55/$2.19 per million input/output tokens, while Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $0.3/$2.5. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $8.79 versus $6.75.
- Which model is better for coding, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or Gemini 2.5 Flash?
- We don't yet track SWE-bench Verified results for both models; check their individual pages for coding-related scores.