DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 72 to 68 and 41 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 0528
41/100- ECI141.2
- Price$0.512 / $2.19
- Context164K
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash
68/100- ECI140.6
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
72/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.215
- Context262K
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is our pick
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Gemini 2.5 Flash (68) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (41). It leads on price. Gemini 2.5 Flash wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 · Gemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images
- Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek R1 0528 | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 49 | 51 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 100 | 50 |
| Context window | 20% | 28 | 61 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 41/100 | 68/100 | 72/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | DeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeek | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 141.2 (best) | 140.6 | — |
| ECI rank | #108 of 165 (best) | #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 | $0.30 | $0.022 (best) |
| Output | $2.19 | $2.50 | $0.215 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.932 | $0.85 | $0.07 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 16 providers | Official Google API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 163,840 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenMIT | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | gemini-2.5-flash | — |
| API providers | 16 | 32 (best) | 1 |
| Released | May 28, 2025 | Jun 17, 2025 | Oct 15, 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$8.00
- Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Gemini 2.5 Flash (68) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (41). It leads on price. Gemini 2.5 Flash wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.215 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). 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 $0.07 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) versus $0.85 for Gemini 2.5 Flash (12× as much) and $0.932 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (13× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. DeepSeek R1 0528 has an ECI of 141.2, Gemini 2.5 Flash has an ECI of 140.6 and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek R1 0528, Gemini 2.5 Flash and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash 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 and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the newest, released Oct 15, 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.
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