Model comparison

DeepSeek V3.1 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

DeepSeek against Google, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 3, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3.1

Budget · Open weights

Google

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Budget

AI model capability comparison
Specification	DeepSeek V3.1	Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Provider	DeepSeek	Google
Tier	Budget	Budget
Context window	128K	Winner: 1M
Max output	Winner: 128K	64K
Input / 1M tokens	Winner: $0.25	$0.30
Output / 1M tokens	Winner: $0.95	$2.50
Weights	Open	Closed
Parameters	671B total / 37B active (MoE)	Not disclosedUnverified
Reasoning levels	low, high, max	low, medium, high
Modalities	text	text, image, video, audio, pdf
License	MIT	Not disclosedUnverified
API model id	Not publishedUnverified	gemini-3.5-flash-lite
Released	August 21, 2025	July 21, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)	44	Winner: 45

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).

Pricing tiers: DeepSeek V3.1: Third-party hosted ~$0.25/$0.95 per MTok; first-party peak/off-peak rates vary — verify on api-docs.deepseek.com. · Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: $0.30/$2.50 per MTok. Cheapest Gemini Flash-Lite tier.

BudgetOpen weightsRecord checked September 3, 2026

DeepSeek V3.1

DeepSeek V3.1 is the open-weight (MIT) general model — 671B/37B MoE, 128K context, strong reasoning at low cost.

Best for

Cost-sensitive hosted agents
High-volume coding assist
Open-weight deployments

Watch out

Self-hosting needs datacentre VRAM; hosted rates differ by provider.

BudgetRecord checked September 2, 2026

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is Google's cheapest tier for high-volume, latency-sensitive agent loops.

Best for

High-volume agents
Document pipelines
Cost-sensitive multimodal

Watch out

Cheapest tier, not strongest on hard reasoning.

When the cheaper one wins

DeepSeek V3.1 is cheaper on output at $0.95 per million tokens against $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — about 2.6×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
1 shared named benchmark (scores match) — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index — scores are equivalent, so the benchmark does not separate the pair.
Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 8 days ago.
Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

DeepSeek V3.1: DeepSeek — V3.1 (accessed 2026-08-29)
DeepSeek V3.1: CloudPrice — DeepSeek V3.1 (accessed 2026-08-29)
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: Google — Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (accessed 2026-08-29)
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: Google Cloud Gemini pricing (accessed 2026-08-29)

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? DeepSeek V3.1 · Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Common questions

DeepSeek V3.1 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is DeepSeek V3.1 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cheaper for input?

DeepSeek V3.1 is cheaper at $0.25 per million input tokens, against $0.30 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — roughly 1.2× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V3.1 has tiered pricing: Third-party hosted ~$0.25/$0.95 per MTok; first-party peak/off-peak rates vary — verify on api-docs.deepseek.com. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite has tiered pricing: $0.30/$2.50 per MTok. Cheapest Gemini Flash-Lite tier.

Is DeepSeek V3.1 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cheaper for output?

DeepSeek V3.1 is cheaper at $0.95 per million output tokens, against $2.50 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — roughly 2.6× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V3.1 has tiered pricing: Third-party hosted ~$0.25/$0.95 per MTok; first-party peak/off-peak rates vary — verify on api-docs.deepseek.com. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite has tiered pricing: $0.30/$2.50 per MTok. Cheapest Gemini Flash-Lite tier.

Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V3.1 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite accepts 1M tokens against 128K for DeepSeek V3.1. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do DeepSeek V3.1 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite support the same reasoning levels?

DeepSeek V3.1 exposes low, high, max, while Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite exposes low, medium, high.

Should I use DeepSeek V3.1 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

Both sit in the budget tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. DeepSeek V3.1 suits cost-sensitive hosted agents; Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite suits high-volume agents.

Can I self-host DeepSeek V3.1 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

DeepSeek V3.1 publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

Input price: DeepSeek V3.1 costs $0.25 per 1M tokens versus $0.30 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — a 1.2x difference at the headline tier.
Context: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite takes 1M against 128K for DeepSeek V3.1 — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
Measured capability: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 45 to 44 (measured 2026-08-14).
Deployment: DeepSeek V3.1 publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.

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