DeepSeek V4 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
DeepSeek · Mar 2026
The open-weights shock of 2026: ~81% SWE-bench Verified, a 1M context and MIT license at $0.30/$0.50 per million tokens.
Google · Jul 2025
Ten cents per million input tokens with multimodal support — the price floor of the 2025 Gemini lineup.
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. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is about 2.0x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite also takes 1.0M of context versus 1M for DeepSeek V4. And DeepSeek V4 is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
Specs & pricing
| DeepSeek V4 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | — | — |
| Input price / 1M | $0.3 | $0.1 |
| Output price / 1M | $0.5 | $0.4 |
| Context window | 1M | 1.0M |
| Max output | 64K | 66K |
| Open weights | yes (MIT) | no |
| Reasoning model | yes | no |
| Multimodal input | text | text, image, audio, video |
| Knowledge cutoff | Dec 2025 | Jan 2025 |
| Released | Mar 2026 | Jul 2025 |
| Example monthly cost* | $3.75 | $1.60 |
* 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 V4 or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?
- These two models don't yet share verified results on the benchmarks we track, so judge them on specs, pricing and intended use. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is about 2.0x cheaper per blended million tokens (3:1 input:output mix). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite also takes 1.0M of context versus 1M for DeepSeek V4. And DeepSeek V4 is open-weights (MIT), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
- Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?
- DeepSeek V4 costs $0.3/$0.5 per million input/output tokens, while Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.1/$0.4. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $3.75 versus $1.60.
- Which model is better for coding, DeepSeek V4 or Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite?
- We don't yet track SWE-bench Verified results for both models; check their individual pages for coding-related scores.