Gemini 2.5 Flash vs DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Kimi K2 Instruct
Gemini 2.5 Flash comes out ahead, 66 to 53 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
GoogleGemini 2.5 Flash
66/100- ECI140.6
- Price$0.30 / $2.50
- Context1.05M
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 0528
53/100- ECI141.2
- Price$0.512 / $2.19
- Context164K
Moonshot AIKimi K2 Instruct
50/100- ECI139.9
- Price$0.57 / $2.30
- Context131K
Gemini 2.5 Flash is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against DeepSeek R1 0528 (53) and Kimi K2 Instruct (50). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityDeepSeek R1 0528Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 · Kimi K2 Instruct 139.9
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 · Kimi K2 Instruct $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 · Kimi K2 Instruct 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · DeepSeek R1 0528: Text · Kimi K2 Instruct: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528 and Kimi K2 InstructPublishes downloadable weights (MIT and Modified MIT)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash | DeepSeek R1 0528 | Kimi K2 Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 65 | 66 | 64 |
| Price | 25% | 51 | 49 | 48 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 35 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 28 | 25 |
| Overall | 100% | 66/100 | 53/100 | 50/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | DeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeek | Kimi K2 InstructMoonshot AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 140.6 | 141.2 (best) | 139.9 |
| ECI rank | #110 of 165 | #108 of 165 (best) | #112 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 76.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 66.4% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 (best) | $0.512 | $0.57 |
| Output | $2.50 | $2.19 (best) | $2.30 |
| Cached input | $0.03 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.85 (best) | $0.932 | $1.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Median of 16 providers | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 163,840 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenMIT | OpenModified MIT |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash | — | — |
| API providers | 32 (best) | 16 | 11 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | May 28, 2025 | Jul 11, 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.
- Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
- DeepSeek R1 0528$9.50
- Kimi K2 Instruct$10.30
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash, DeepSeek R1 0528 or Kimi K2 Instruct?
Gemini 2.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against DeepSeek R1 0528 (53) and Kimi K2 Instruct (50). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash, DeepSeek R1 0528 or Kimi K2 Instruct?
Gemini 2.5 Flash is cheaper at $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); Kimi K2 Instruct costs $0.57 input / $2.30 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.85 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash versus $0.932 for DeepSeek R1 0528 (1.1× as much) and $1.00 for Kimi K2 Instruct (1.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
DeepSeek R1 0528 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 (#108 of 165), Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165) and Kimi K2 Instruct 139.9 (#112 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (139.0–142.9 vs 138.4–142.1), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash, DeepSeek R1 0528 and Kimi K2 Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, DeepSeek R1 0528 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 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528 and 131,072 for Kimi K2 Instruct. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768, Kimi K2 Instruct up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text; Kimi K2 Instruct accepts text. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek R1 0528 and Kimi K2 Instruct publishes its weights (MIT and Modified MIT) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 2.5 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Kimi K2 Instruct is the newest, released Jul 11, 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.
Related comparisons
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba (Qwen) · ECI 143.8
- Gemini 2.5 Flash vs GPT-5 MiniOpenAI · ECI 145.4
- DeepSeek R1 0528 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba (Qwen) · ECI 143.8
- DeepSeek R1 0528 vs GLM-4.7Z.ai (Zhipu) · ECI 143.7
- Kimi K2 Instruct vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Thinking 2507Alibaba (Qwen) · ECI 143.8
- Kimi K2 Instruct vs GLM-4.7Z.ai (Zhipu) · ECI 143.7
