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DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: pricing and benchmarks

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 77% cheaper on input tokens ($0.30 vs $1.32 per 1M). Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 37% cheaper on output tokens ($2.50 vs $3.96 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $195.00 a month versus $646.80 for DeepSeek V4 Pro, 70% less. DeepSeek V4 Pro scores 155.5 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 145.1 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

Prices verified September 14, 2026.

Which should you choose?

Overall capability
DeepSeek V4 Pro

DeepSeek V4 Pro scores 155.5 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 145.1 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

Advanced math
DeepSeek V4 Pro

DeepSeek V4 Pro scores 64.6% on FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3) vs 26.0% for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

Price
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.85 per 1M tokens (3:1 input-to-output mix) vs $1.98 for DeepSeek V4 Pro, 57% less.

Best value
Too close to call

A trade-off: DeepSeek V4 Pro is 10.3 ECI points more capable but costs 2.3x as much as Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

Pricing and specs

DeepSeek V4 ProGemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
ProviderDeepSeekGoogle
API model IDdeepseek-v4-progemini-3.5-flash-lite
Input / 1M tokens$1.32$0.30
Cached input / 1M tokens$0.044$0.03
Output / 1M tokens$3.96$2.50
Long-context rates
Context window1M tokens1.05M tokens
Max output384K tokens66K tokens
Batch discount50% off

Benchmarks

DeepSeek V4 ProGemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Epoch Capabilities Index155.5145.1
GPQA Diamond· Science reasoning88.9%77.8%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3)· Advanced math64.6%26.0%
SimpleQA Verified· Factual accuracy52.9%
ARC-AGI-2· Abstract reasoning61.3%10.3%
DeepSWE· Coding
APEX-Agents· Agentic work

Source: Epoch AI, best recorded result per model (CC BY 4.0). A dash means no published score. See all benchmarks

Monthly cost for real workloads

WorkloadDeepSeek V4 ProGemini 3.5 Flash-LiteDifference
Support chatbot
100,000 replies a month, ~1,500 input tokens (system prompt + history) and ~400 output tokens each.
$356.40$145.00Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 59% cheaper
Document Q&A (RAG)
50,000 questions a month with ~8,000 tokens of retrieved context and ~600 output tokens each.
$646.80$195.00Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 70% cheaper
Coding agent
10,000 agent steps a month, ~40,000 input tokens each (70% read from the prompt cache) and ~2,000 output tokens.
$249.92$94.40Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 62% cheaper

Estimates use standard list prices and ignore cache-write surcharges. Different tokenizers can count the same text differently, so test with your own prompts.

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cost calculator

Standard-tier list prices. Long-context rates apply automatically where the provider publishes a threshold. Excludes cache-write surcharges, taxes, batch and volume discounts.

DeepSeek V4 Pro pricing notes

DeepSeek’s larger V4 model with thinking and non-thinking modes and tool calls.

  • Prices shown are peak rates. Off-peak rates are half: peak hours are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, Monday to Friday.
  • Vision input is not supported.
DeepSeek official pricing ↗

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite pricing notes

Google’s lowest-cost Gemini 3.5 model for high-volume work.

  • The same input price applies to text, image, video and audio.
  • Output price includes thinking tokens.
Google official pricing ↗

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek V4 Pro cheaper than Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 77% cheaper on input tokens ($0.30 vs $1.32 per 1M). Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 37% cheaper on output tokens ($2.50 vs $3.96 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $195.00 a month versus $646.80 for DeepSeek V4 Pro, 70% less.
Which is more capable, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
DeepSeek V4 Pro scores 155.5 on the Epoch Capabilities Index vs 145.1 for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.
How much does DeepSeek V4 Pro cost per 1M tokens?
DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $1.32 per 1M input tokens and $3.96 per 1M output tokens, and $0.044 per 1M cached input tokens on DeepSeek’s standard tier.
How much does Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite cost per 1M tokens?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $2.50 per 1M output tokens, and $0.03 per 1M cached input tokens on Google’s standard tier.
Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite has the larger context window: 1.05M tokens versus 1M for DeepSeek V4 Pro.

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