DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Gemini 4 Carbon: pricing and benchmarks
DeepSeek V4 Pro is 34% cheaper on input tokens ($1.32 vs $2.00 per 1M). DeepSeek V4 Pro is 60% cheaper on output tokens ($3.96 vs $10.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $646.80 a month versus $1,100 for Gemini 4 Carbon, 41% less. Epoch AI has not published a capability index score for Gemini 4 Carbon yet.
Which should you choose?
Epoch AI has not published a capability index score for Gemini 4 Carbon yet.
DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $1.98 per 1M tokens (3:1 input-to-output mix) vs $4.00 for Gemini 4 Carbon, 51% less.
Pricing and specs
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | |
| API model ID | deepseek-v4-pro | gemini-4-carbon |
| Input / 1M tokens | $1.32 | $2.00 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.044 | $0.10 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $3.96 | $10.00 |
| Long-context rates | — | — |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 384K tokens | 66K tokens |
| Batch discount | — | 50% off |
Benchmarks
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 155.3 | — |
| GPQA Diamond· Science reasoning | 91.7% | — |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1–3)· Advanced math | 64.6% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified· Factual accuracy | 52.9% | — |
| ARC-AGI-2· Abstract reasoning | 61.3% | — |
| DeepSWE· Coding | — | — |
| APEX-Agents· Agentic work | 47.3% | — |
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
| Workload | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
Support chatbot 100,000 replies a month, ~1,500 input tokens (system prompt + history) and ~400 output tokens each. | $356.40 | $700.00 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 49% cheaper |
Document Q&A (RAG) 50,000 questions a month with ~8,000 tokens of retrieved context and ~600 output tokens each. | $646.80 | $1,100 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 41% 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 | $468.00 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 47% cheaper |
Cached chatbot The same 100,000-reply support chatbot, but 60% of each prompt (system prompt + conversation history) is served from the prompt cache. | $241.56 | $529.00 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 54% cheaper |
Meeting notes 10,000 meetings a month summarized from ~12,000-token transcripts, ~1,000 output tokens each. | $198.00 | $340.00 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 42% cheaper |
Bulk translation 200,000 short translations a month, ~800 input and ~800 output tokens each. | $844.80 | $1,920 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 56% cheaper |
Content moderation 1,000,000 classifications a month, ~400 input tokens and ~80 output tokens each. | $844.80 | $1,600 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 47% cheaper |
Article drafting 300 long-form articles a month written from a ~4,000-token brief and outline, ~5,000 output tokens each. | $7.52 | $17.40 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 57% cheaper |
Code review bot 30,000 pull-request reviews a month, ~5,000 input tokens each (30% cached repository context) and ~700 output tokens. | $223.74 | $424.50 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 47% cheaper |
Invoice extraction 100,000 documents a month parsed into structured JSON, ~1,200 input and ~250 output tokens each. | $257.40 | $490.00 | DeepSeek V4 Pro 47% 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 4 Carbon cost calculator
- $646.80/mo$0.01 / req
- Gemini 4 CarbonGoogle$1,100/mo$0.02 / req
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.
- Web Search and Fetch cost $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests each; calls made through Claude Code, Codex or DeepSeek Harness are free until November 1, 2026.
Gemini 4 Carbon pricing notes
Google’s most capable reasoning model, for sustained agentic coding, multimodal knowledge work and scientific reasoning.
- Introductory price through November 30, 2026. From December 1, 2026: $4 input, $0.20 cached, $20 output per 1M tokens.
- Not available on the Gemini API free tier.
- Output price includes thinking tokens.
- Max output is 65,536 tokens by default and up to 1,048,576 with long decode.
- Implicit caching only; explicit context caching is not supported.
- Priority inference costs 1.8x the standard rate.
Frequently asked questions
- Is DeepSeek V4 Pro cheaper than Gemini 4 Carbon?
- DeepSeek V4 Pro is 34% cheaper on input tokens ($1.32 vs $2.00 per 1M). DeepSeek V4 Pro is 60% cheaper on output tokens ($3.96 vs $10.00 per 1M). On our document Q&A workload (50,000 questions a month), DeepSeek V4 Pro costs $646.80 a month versus $1,100 for Gemini 4 Carbon, 41% less.
- Which is more capable, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Gemini 4 Carbon?
- Epoch AI has not published a capability index score for Gemini 4 Carbon yet.
- 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 4 Carbon cost per 1M tokens?
- Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens, and $0.10 per 1M cached input tokens on Google’s standard tier.
- Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Gemini 4 Carbon?
- Gemini 4 Carbon has the larger context window: 1.05M tokens versus 1M for DeepSeek V4 Pro.