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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

DeepSeek-V3 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite comes out ahead, 71 to 58 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-V3

    Released Dec 26, 2024

    50/100
    • ECI132.3
    • Price$0.32 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek-V3
  2. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    71/100
    • ECI133.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite

  3. Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
01 — Verdict

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is our pick

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (58) and DeepSeek-V3 (50). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 · DeepSeek-V3 132.3 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.175 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · DeepSeek-V3 $0.515 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · DeepSeek-V3 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteDeepSeek-V3: Text · Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek-V3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (DeepSeek Model License)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek-V3Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%565856
Price25%648666
Inputs & features15%2510050
Context window10%246160
Overall100%50/10071/10058/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

DeepSeek-V3 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek-V3DeepSeekGemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogleLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)132.3133.9 (best)132.2
ECI rank#121 of 148#118 of 148 (best)#122 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions56.5%—67.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics15.8%—20.6% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.32$0.10 (best)$0.321
Output$1.10$0.40 (best)$0.91
Cached input—$0.01—
Blended (3:1)$0.515$0.175 (best)$0.468
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 5 providersOfficial Google APIMedian of 6 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningNoYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenDeepSeek Model LicenseProprietaryOpen
API model ID—gemini-2.5-flash-lite—
API providers520 (best)6
ReleasedDec 26, 2024Jun 17, 2025Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 2025Aug 2024
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-V3$5.40
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite$1.80
  • Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek-V3, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (58) and DeepSeek-V3 (50). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct costs $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers); DeepSeek-V3 costs $0.32 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.175 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite versus $0.468 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct (2.7× as much) and $0.515 for DeepSeek-V3 (2.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 133.9 (#118 of 148), DeepSeek-V3 132.3 (#121 of 148) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (129.8–136.3 vs 127.5–135.5), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek-V3, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and 131,072 for DeepSeek-V3. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek-V3 up to 8,192, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite up to 65,536, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

DeepSeek-V3 accepts text; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek-V3 and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct publishes its weights (DeepSeek Model License) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the newest, released Jun 17, 2025. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; DeepSeek-V3 came out Dec 26, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite Jan 2025, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024.

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.

05 — Keep comparing

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