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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507

Gemini 2.5 Flash comes out ahead, 66 to 55 and 53 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek R1 0528

    Released May 28, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI141.2
    • Price$0.512 / $2.19
    • Context164K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek R1 0528
  2. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    66/100
    • ECI140.6
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507

    Released Jul 25, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI143.8
    • Price$0.30 / $2.90
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 (55) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 143.8 · DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 $0.95 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 262,144 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 FlashDeepSeek R1 0528: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507: Text
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528 and Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Publishes downloadable weights (MIT and Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek R1 0528Gemini 2.5 FlashQwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%666569
Price25%495149
Inputs & features15%3510035
Context window10%286137
Overall100%53/10066/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeekGemini 2.5 FlashGoogleQwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)141.2140.6143.8 (best)
ECI rank#108 of 165#110 of 165#93 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions76.3%—80.1% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.4%—86.7% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——40.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.512$0.30 (best)$0.30 (best)
Output$2.19 (best)$2.50$2.90
Cached input—$0.03—
Blended (3:1)$0.932$0.85 (best)$0.95
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 16 providersOfficial Google APIMedian of 11 providers
Limits
Context window163,840 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens65,536 tokens81,920 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenMITProprietaryOpenApache 2.0
API model ID—gemini-2.5-flash—
API providers1632 (best)12
ReleasedMay 28, 2025Jun 17, 2025Jul 25, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 2025—
03 — Cost

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$8.00
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507$8.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507?

Gemini 2.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 (55) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 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 or Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507?

Gemini 2.5 Flash is cheaper at $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); Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 costs $0.30 input / $2.90 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.85 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash versus $0.932 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (1.1× as much) and $0.95 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 143.8 (#93 of 165), DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 (#108 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (141.9–145.2 vs 139.0–142.9), 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 and Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 and 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 up to 81,920 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek R1 0528 and Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 publishes its weights (MIT and Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507 is the newest, released Jul 25, 2025. Gemini 2.5 Flash came out Jun 17, 2025; DeepSeek R1 0528 came out May 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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