DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 vs Qwen3 30B A3B
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 comes out ahead, 67 to 57 and 53 on our weighted score.
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 0528
53/100- ECI141.2
- Price$0.512 / $2.19
- Context164K
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17
67/100- ECI133.8
- Price$0.12 / $0.48
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 30B A3B
57/100- ECI136.2
- Price$0.108 / $0.475
- Context131K
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Qwen3 30B A3B (57) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. DeepSeek R1 0528 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityDeepSeek R1 0528Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 · Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8
- Lowest priceQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 30B A3B $0.20 · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 $0.21 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 1,048,576 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 · Qwen3 30B A3B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17DeepSeek R1 0528: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 30B A3B: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528 and Qwen3 30B A3BPublishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek R1 0528 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 | Qwen3 30B A3B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 66 | 57 | 59 |
| Price | 25% | 49 | 79 | 80 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 90 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 28 | 61 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 67/100 | 57/100 |
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 | Qwen3 30B A3BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 141.2 (best) | 133.8 | 136.2 |
| ECI rank | #108 of 165 (best) | #132 of 165 | #126 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 76.3% (best) | — | 61.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 66.4% (best) | — | 62.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.512 | $0.12 | $0.108 (best) |
| Output | $2.19 | $0.48 | $0.475 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.932 | $0.21 | $0.20 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 16 providers | Median of 2 providers | Median of 14 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 163,840 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenMIT | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 16 (best) | 2 | 14 |
| Released | May 28, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Apr 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | 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
- Qwen3 30B A3B$2.03
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 or Qwen3 30B A3B?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the better all-round choice, scoring 67/100 against Qwen3 30B A3B (57) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). It leads on inputs & features and context window. DeepSeek R1 0528 wins on capability. 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 Qwen3 30B A3B?
Qwen3 30B A3B is cheaper at $0.108 input / $0.475 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 costs $0.12 input / $0.48 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); 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 $0.20 per million tokens for Qwen3 30B A3B versus $0.21 for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 (1× as much) and $0.932 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (4.7× 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), Qwen3 30B A3B 136.2 (#126 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 133.8 (#132 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (139.0–142.9 vs 130.8–138.5), so the gap is a real one.
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 Qwen3 30B A3B 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528 and 131,072 for Qwen3 30B A3B. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 up to 65,536, Qwen3 30B A3B up to 16,384 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; Qwen3 30B A3B accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek R1 0528 and Qwen3 30B A3B publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. DeepSeek R1 0528 came out May 28, 2025; Qwen3 30B A3B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Preview 06-17 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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