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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Gemini 2.5 Flash

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 72 to 68 and 41 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek R1 0528

    Released May 28, 2025

    41/100
    • ECI141.2
    • Price$0.512 / $2.19
    • Context164K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek R1 0528
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    72/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.215
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

  3. Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    68/100
    • ECI140.6
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash
01 — Verdict

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 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek R1 0528Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Gemini 2.5 Flash
Price50%4910051
Inputs & features30%3550100
Context window20%283761
Overall100%41/10072/10068/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

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 Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Gemini 2.5 Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeekQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen)Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)141.2 (best)—140.6
ECI rank#108 of 165 (best)—#110 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions76.3%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.4%——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.512$0.022 (best)$0.30
Output$2.19$0.215 (best)$2.50
Cached input——$0.03
Blended (3:1)$0.932$0.07 (best)$0.85
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 16 providersMedian of 1 providersOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window163,840 tokens262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output32,768 tokens32,768 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenMITProprietaryProprietary
API model ID——gemini-2.5-flash
API providers16132 (best)
ReleasedMay 28, 2025Oct 15, 2025Jun 17, 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
  • Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek R1 0528, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

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, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

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, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet and Gemini 2.5 Flash has an ECI of 140.6.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek R1 0528, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Gemini 2.5 Flash 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, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. 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; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Gemini 2.5 Flash 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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