DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
by DeepSeek
|
by Google
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Preview budget | Current budget |
| Released | Aug 21, 2026 | Jul 21, 2026 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.440/Mtok | $0.300/Mtok |
| Output | $1.32/Mtok | $2.50/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $0.660/Mtok | $0.850/Mtok |
| Cached input | $0.014/Mtok | $0.030/Mtok |
| Price basis | DeepSeek bills this model at TWO rates depending on the hour, on the same schedule and at the same numbers as deepseek-v4-flash. The tracked figure is the PEAK rate: $0.44 input / $0.014 cached input / $1.32 output per 1M tokens. Off-peak is exactly half: $0.22 / $0.007 / $0.66. Peak hours are 01:00-04:00 and 06:00-10:00 UTC; every other hour is off-peak. Peak is the headline because DeepSeek defines off-peak as half of peak rather than the other way round, so peak is the list rate. Image input bills at the same per-token rates once the image is tokenized; DeepSeek's rate card prints no separate per-image charge. | Verified against Google's Gemini API pricing page (ai.google.dev) on 2026-07-28: the Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Standard paid tier is $0.30/1M input, $2.50/1M output, $0.03/1M context caching (batch tier $0.15/$1.25). The identical $0.30/$2.50 price shared with the deprecated Gemini 2.5 Flash reflects Google's uniform Flash tier pricing, not a placeholder — the value matches LiteLLM gemini/gemini-3.5-flash-lite. |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimage
|
textimageaudiovideo
|
| Benchmarks sources: public leaderboards / Artificial Analysis | ||
| Independent composite scores each on its own scale — not part of the average above | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | — | 37.4 |
| AA Agentic Index | — | 27.2 |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | — | 5.2 |
| GDPval-AA v2 | — | 1139.9 ELO |
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | — | 1457.4 ELO |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
DeepSeek — $0.440/$1.32/Mtok
|
Google — $0.300/$2.50/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $0.66 | $0.85 | $0.19 (22.4%) |
| 10M tokens | $6.6 | $8.5 | $1.9 (22.4%) |
| 100M tokens | $66 | $85 | $19 (22.4%) |
| 1000M tokens | $660 | $850 | $190 (22.4%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above- cost dominates: $0.660/Mtok blended vs $0.850 — 22.4% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.014/Mtok — 97% off its list input price
- this pairing gives Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite no edge on price, context, cache discount, or measured performance — pick it only for qualitative fit (ecosystem, compliance, model behavior on your prompts)
The cheaper option here — DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp costs $0.660/Mtok blended on DeepSeek.
Summary
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp by DeepSeek costs $0.440/Mtok input and $1.32/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image input.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google costs $0.300/Mtok input and $2.50/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image, audio, video input.
On a blended cost basis, DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp is 22.4% cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.