Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Claude Haiku 4.5 vs DeepSeek R1 0528
Gemini 2.5 Flash comes out ahead, 66 to 57 and 53 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
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
57/100- ECI142.2
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
DeepSeekDeepSeek R1 0528
53/100- ECI141.2
- Price$0.512 / $2.19
- Context164K
Gemini 2.5 Flash is our pick
Gemini 2.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (57) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Haiku 4.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 4.5 142.2 · DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6
- Lowest priceGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · DeepSeek R1 0528: Text
- Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | Gemini 2.5 Flash | Claude Haiku 4.5 | DeepSeek R1 0528 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 65 | 67 | 66 |
| Price | 25% | 51 | 34 | 49 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 100 | 80 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 32 | 28 |
| Overall | 100% | 66/100 | 57/100 | 53/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | DeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 140.6 | 142.2 (best) | 141.2 |
| ECI rank | #110 of 165 | #102 of 165 (best) | #108 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 71.2% | 76.3% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 66.7% (best) | 66.4% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 13.2% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 (best) | $1.00 | $0.512 |
| Output | $2.50 | $5.00 | $2.19 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.03 (best) | $0.10 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.85 (best) | $2.00 | $0.932 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Google API | Official Anthropic API | Median of 16 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens | 163,840 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 64,000 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | OpenMIT |
| API model ID | gemini-2.5-flash | claude-haiku-4-5 | — |
| API providers | 32 | 48 (best) | 16 |
| Released | Jun 17, 2025 | Oct 15, 2025 | May 28, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 2025 | Feb 28, 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
- Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
- DeepSeek R1 0528$9.50
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash, Claude Haiku 4.5 or DeepSeek R1 0528?
Gemini 2.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (57) and DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). 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, Claude Haiku 4.5 or DeepSeek R1 0528?
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); Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). 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 $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (2.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Haiku 4.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 4.5 142.2 (#102 of 165), DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 (#108 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (139.4–143.9 vs 139.0–142.9), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash, Claude Haiku 4.5 and DeepSeek R1 0528 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 4.5 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 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5 and 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text. 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; Gemini 2.5 Flash and Claude Haiku 4.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Claude Haiku 4.5 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, Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 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.
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