DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs Gemini 3.5 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 · May 2026
Google's I/O 2026 headliner: near-Pro intelligence at Flash speed, 78.8% on SWE-bench Verified with full multimodal input.
The verdict
These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. On price the gap is dramatic: DeepSeek R1 (0528) works out roughly 3.5x cheaper per blended million tokens. Gemini 3.5 Flash also takes 1M 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.
Specs & pricing
| DeepSeek R1 (0528) | Gemini 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | 67.8 | — |
| Input price / 1M | $0.55 | $1.5 |
| Output price / 1M | $2.19 | $9 |
| Context window | 128K | 1M |
| Max output | 64K | 66K |
| Open weights | yes (MIT) | no |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text | text, image, audio, video |
| Knowledge cutoff | Mar 2025 | Feb 2026 |
| Released | May 2025 | May 2026 |
| Example monthly cost* | $8.79 | $28.50 |
* 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 3.5 Flash?
- These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. On price the gap is dramatic: DeepSeek R1 (0528) works out roughly 3.5x cheaper per blended million tokens. Gemini 3.5 Flash also takes 1M 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 3.5 Flash?
- DeepSeek R1 (0528) costs $0.55/$2.19 per million input/output tokens, while Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.5/$9. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $8.79 versus $28.50.
- Which model is better for coding, DeepSeek R1 (0528) or Gemini 3.5 Flash?
- We don't yet track SWE-bench Verified results for both models; check their individual pages for coding-related scores.