DeepSeek-V3.1 vs Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3 14B
Gemini 3 Flash Preview comes out ahead, 73 to 55 and 54 on our weighted score, though DeepSeek-V3.1 is 47% cheaper per token.
DeepSeekDeepSeek-V3.1
55/100- ECI139.9
- Price$0.385 / $1.25
- Context131K
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 3 Flash Preview
73/100- ECI151.8
- Price$0.50 / $3.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 14B
54/100- ECI138.2
- Price$0.35 / $1.40
- Context131K
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is our pick
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against DeepSeek-V3.1 (55) and Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 3 Flash PreviewCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3 Flash Preview 151.8 · DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 · Qwen3 14B 138.2
- Lowest priceDeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek-V3.1 $0.601 · Qwen3 14B $0.613 · Gemini 3 Flash Preview $1.13 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3 Flash PreviewGemini 3 Flash Preview 1,048,576 · DeepSeek-V3.1 131,072 · Qwen3 14B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3 Flash PreviewDeepSeek-V3.1: Text · Gemini 3 Flash Preview: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 14B: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3 14BPublishes downloadable weights (MIT License)
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3 14B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 65 | 80 | 63 |
| Price | 25% | 60 | 47 | 60 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 100 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 61 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 55/100 | 73/100 | 54/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | DeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek | Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle | Qwen3 14BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 139.9 | 151.8 (best) | 138.2 |
| ECI rank | #100 of 148 | #43 of 148 (best) | #107 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 89.4% (best) | 63.8% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 51.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 95.6% (best) | 66.4% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 75.4% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 66.8% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.385 | $0.50 | $0.35 (best) |
| Output | $1.25 (best) | $3.00 | $1.40 |
| Cached input | — | $0.05 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.601 (best) | $1.13 | $0.613 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 8 providers | Official Google API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 8,192 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 | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenMIT License | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | — | gemini-3-flash-preview | qwen3-14b |
| API providers | 8 | 20 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Aug 21, 2025 | Dec 17, 2025 | Apr 29, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jan 2025 | Apr 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-V3.1$6.35
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview$11.00
- Qwen3 14B$6.30
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek-V3.1, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Qwen3 14B?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against DeepSeek-V3.1 (55) and Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Qwen3 14B?
DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper at $0.385 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 8 API providers). Qwen3 14B costs $0.35 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 input / $3.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.601 per million tokens for DeepSeek-V3.1 versus $0.613 for Qwen3 14B (1× as much) and $1.13 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview (1.9× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3 Flash Preview 151.8 (#43 of 148), DeepSeek-V3.1 139.9 (#100 of 148) and Qwen3 14B 138.2 (#107 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (150.4–153.7 vs 136.1–143.3), so the gap is a real one.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3 14B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3 Flash Preview 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 3 Flash Preview has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3.1 and 131,072 for Qwen3 14B. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-V3.1 up to 8,192, Gemini 3 Flash Preview up to 65,536, Qwen3 14B up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
DeepSeek-V3.1 accepts text; Gemini 3 Flash Preview accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 14B accepts text. Gemini 3 Flash Preview handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3 14B publishes its weights (MIT License) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3 Flash Preview is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview is the newest, released Dec 17, 2025. DeepSeek-V3.1 came out Aug 21, 2025; Qwen3 14B came out Apr 29, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3 Flash Preview Jan 2025, Qwen3 14B Apr 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 Oct 4, 2026.
Related comparisons
- DeepSeek-V3.1 vs Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle · ECI 140.8
- DeepSeek-V3.1 vs GPT OSS 120BOpenAI · ECI 140.0
- DeepSeek-V3.1 vs GLM-4.7Z.ai (Zhipu) · ECI 143.5
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Grok 4.20 (Reasoning)xAI · ECI 152.0
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Kimi K2.5Moonshot AI · ECI 148.0
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 147.6
