Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 vs GPT-5 Mini vs DeepSeek R1 0528
Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 67, GPT-5 Mini 64, DeepSeek R1 0528 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Google
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20
67/100- ECI141.5
- Price$0.146 / $1.96
- Context1.05M
OpenAI
GPT-5 Mini
64/100- ECI145.4
- Price$0.25 / $2.00
- Context400K
DeepSeek
DeepSeek R1 0528
53/100- ECI141.2
- Price$0.512 / $2.19
- Context164K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 67/100, GPT-5 Mini 64/100, DeepSeek R1 0528 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Mini for raw capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 on price and Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-5 MiniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Mini 145.4 · Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 141.5 · DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 $0.60 · GPT-5 Mini $0.688 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 1,048,576 · GPT-5 Mini 400,000 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GPT-5 Mini: Text, Images · DeepSeek R1 0528: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 | GPT-5 Mini | DeepSeek R1 0528 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 66 | 71 | 66 |
| Price | 25% | 58 | 55 | 49 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 70 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 44 | 28 |
| Overall | 100% | 67/100 | 64/100 | 53/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 141.5 | 145.4 (best) | 141.2 |
| ECI rank | #106 of 165 | #87 of 165 (best) | #108 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 75.0% | 76.3% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 46.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 70.8% | 86.7% (best) | 66.4% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 64.7% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 21.6% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.146 (best) | $0.25 | $0.512 |
| Output | $1.96 (best) | $2.00 | $2.19 |
| Cached input | — | $0.025 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.60 (best) | $0.688 | $0.932 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 2 providers | Official OpenAI API | Median of 16 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 400,000 tokens | 163,840 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | OpenMIT |
| API model ID | — | gpt-5-mini | — |
| API providers | 2 | 35 (best) | 16 |
| Released | May 20, 2025 | Aug 7, 2025 | May 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | May 30, 2024 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20$5.39
GPT-5 Mini$6.50
DeepSeek R1 0528$9.50
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20, GPT-5 Mini or DeepSeek R1 0528?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 67/100, GPT-5 Mini 64/100, DeepSeek R1 0528 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Mini for raw capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 on price and Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20, GPT-5 Mini or DeepSeek R1 0528?
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 is cheaper at $0.146 input / $1.96 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). GPT-5 Mini costs $0.25 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI 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 $0.60 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 versus $0.688 for GPT-5 Mini (1.1× as much) and $0.932 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (1.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-5 Mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Mini 145.4 (#87 of 165), Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 141.5 (#106 of 165) and DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 (#108 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (143.5–147.1 vs 139.3–142.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5 Mini 86.7%, Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 70.8%, DeepSeek R1 0528 66.4%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 and DeepSeek R1 0528 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5 Mini 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 Preview 05-20 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5 Mini and 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 up to 65,536, GPT-5 Mini up to 128,000, DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; GPT-5 Mini accepts text and images; DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 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 Preview 05-20 and GPT-5 Mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
GPT-5 Mini is the newest, released Aug 7, 2025. DeepSeek R1 0528 came out May 28, 2025; Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 came out May 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview 05-20 Jan 2025, GPT-5 Mini May 30, 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 Nov 2, 2026.