DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66, DeepSeek R1 0528 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 0528
53/100- ECI141.2
- Price$0.512 / $2.19
- Context164K
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
67/100- ECI133.8
- Price$0.12 / $0.48
- Context1.05M
- Google
Gemini 2.5 Flash
66/100- ECI140.6
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, DeepSeek R1 0528 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek R1 0528 for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityDeepSeek R1 0528Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 $0.21 · Gemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 FlashDeepSeek R1 0528: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
- Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek R1 0528 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 | Gemini 2.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 66 | 57 | 65 |
| Price | 25% | 49 | 79 | 51 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 90 | 100 |
| Context window | 10% | 28 | 61 | 61 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 67/100 | 66/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | DeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeek | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Google | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 141.2 (best) | 133.8 | 140.6 |
| ECI rank | #108 of 165 (best) | #132 of 165 | #110 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 76.3% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 66.4% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.512 | $0.12 (best) | $0.30 |
| Output | $2.19 | $0.48 (best) | $2.50 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.03 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.932 | $0.21 (best) | $0.85 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 16 providers | Median of 2 providers | Official Google API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 163,840 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,048,576 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | Yes | Yes |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenMIT | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | gemini-2.5-flash |
| API providers | 16 | 2 | 32 (best) |
| Released | May 28, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 2025 | Jan 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- DeepSeek R1 0528$9.50
- Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17$2.16
- Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 67/100, Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, DeepSeek R1 0528 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: DeepSeek R1 0528 for raw capability and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is cheaper at $0.12 input / $0.48 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Gemini 2.5 Flash costs $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price); DeepSeek R1 0528 costs $0.512 input / $2.19 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.21 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 versus $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash (4× as much) and $0.932 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (4.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
DeepSeek R1 0528 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 (#108 of 165), Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (139.0–142.9 vs 138.4–142.1), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek R1 0528 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 Flash have the largest context windows (1,048,576 and 1,048,576 tokens), against 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek R1 0528 publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 and Gemini 2.5 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash came out Jun 17, 2025; DeepSeek R1 0528 came out May 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 Jan 2025, Gemini 2.5 Flash Jan 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
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