Standard Compute
Model Comparison 2026

DeepSeek R1 (0528) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash

DeepSeek R1 (0528)
DeepSeek · Balanced · Open weights
$0.99/1M · 164K ctx
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Google · Balanced · Proprietary
$3.75/1M · 1.0M ctx

Community Vote

Pick a winner in each dimension — change your vote anytime. 1 votes cast so far.

Output Quality
Correctness and depth of what it produces
DeepSeek R1 0%100% Gemini 3.5 Flash
Agentic Ability
Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks
Speed
Tokens per second and time-to-first-token
Value for $
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results — fewer refusals, loops, and format breaks

Specs & Pricing, Side by Side

Spec
DeepSeek R1
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Maker
DeepSeek
Google
Blended price / 1M
$0.99
$3.75
Input / output
$0.50 in · $2.15 out / 1M tokens
$1.50 in · $9.00 out / 1M tokens
Context window
164K
1.0M
Open weights
Yes
No
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
Yes
Output Quality
7.5
8.9
Agentic Ability
7.0
8.9
Speed
6.8
9.4
Value for $
8.6
8.7
Reliability
8.6
8.9

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

Updated 2026-08-02

Choose DeepSeek R1 (0528) if you want reasoning-heavy planning where cost matters. Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash if you want high-throughput agents that need big context cheaply.

In our editorial scoring, Gemini 3.5 Flash leads in 5 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability, speed, value for $ and reliability), while DeepSeek R1 (0528) leads in 0. On price, DeepSeek R1 (0528) runs about $0.99 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; Gemini 3.5 Flash is about $3.75 and proprietary.

Across 1 community votes on this matchup, Gemini 3.5 Flash currently leads in 1 of five dimensions. Cast your own vote above to move the needle.

Where DeepSeek R1 falls short
  • Slow due to long reasoning
  • Weaker at fast tool loops
Full DeepSeek R1 breakdown →
Where Gemini 3.5 Flash falls short
  • Below Pro on hard reasoning
  • Occasional verbosity
Full Gemini 3.5 Flash breakdown →

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