Claude Haiku 5.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
Claude Haiku 5.5 comes out ahead, 83 to 79 and 74 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 5.5
83/100- ECI160.4
- Price$0.10 / $0.50
- Context1M
GoogleGemini 3.8 Flash
74/100- ECI157.6
- Price$0.75 / $3.75
- Context1.05M
DeepSeekDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
79/100- ECI158.8
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context1M
Claude Haiku 5.5 is our pick
Claude Haiku 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (79) and Gemini 3.8 Flash (74). It leads on capability and price. Gemini 3.8 Flash wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Haiku 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 5.5 160.4 · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 158.8 · Gemini 3.8 Flash 157.6
- Lowest priceClaude Haiku 5.5Claude Haiku 5.5 $0.20 · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.263 · Gemini 3.8 Flash $1.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 3.8 FlashGemini 3.8 Flash 1,048,576 · Claude Haiku 5.5 1,000,000 · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 3.8 FlashClaude Haiku 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Gemini 3.8 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: Text, Images
- Self-hostingDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | Claude Haiku 5.5 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 89 | 86 | 87 |
| Price | 25% | 80 | 40 | 74 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 100 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 83/100 | 74/100 | 79/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic | Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 160.4 (best) | 157.6 | 158.8 |
| ECI rank | #14 of 165 (best) | #23 of 165 | #19 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 89.7% | 95.4% (best) | 93.2% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 75.1% (best) | 68.4% | 71.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 98.9% | 98.9% | 99.4% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 23.8% | 69.7% (best) | 42.5% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.10 (best) | $0.75 | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.50 (best) | $3.75 | $0.60 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | $0.075 | $0.003 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.20 (best) | $1.50 | $0.263 |
| Long-context rate | Over 100K: $0.50 / $2.50 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Google API | Official DeepSeek API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens | 384,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high | Yeslow · high · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | OpenMIT |
| API model ID | claude-haiku-5-5 | gemini-3.8-flash | deepseek-flash |
| API providers | 33 | 32 | 40 (best) |
| Released | Oct 7, 2026 | Sep 2, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 2026 | — | May 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Haiku 5.5$2.00
- Gemini 3.8 Flash$15.00
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017$2.70
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Haiku 5.5, Gemini 3.8 Flash or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017?
Claude Haiku 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (79) and Gemini 3.8 Flash (74). It leads on capability and price. Gemini 3.8 Flash wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 5.5, Gemini 3.8 Flash or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017?
Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official DeepSeek API price); Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 input / $3.75 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.20 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 5.5 versus $0.263 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (1.3× as much) and $1.50 for Gemini 3.8 Flash (7.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Haiku 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 5.5 160.4 (#14 of 165), DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 158.8 (#19 of 165) and Gemini 3.8 Flash 157.6 (#23 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (157.3–163.8 vs 156.7–162.2), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.8 Flash 95.4%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 93.2%, Claude Haiku 5.5 89.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Haiku 5.5 75.1%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 71.2%, Gemini 3.8 Flash 68.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 99.4%, Claude Haiku 5.5 98.9%, Gemini 3.8 Flash 98.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.8 Flash 69.7%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 42.5%, Claude Haiku 5.5 23.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 5.5, Gemini 3.8 Flash and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 5.5 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 3.8 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Haiku 5.5 and 1,000,000 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 5.5 up to 128,000, Gemini 3.8 Flash up to 65,536, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 up to 384,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Haiku 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 accepts text and images. Gemini 3.8 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 5.5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is the newest, released Oct 17, 2026. Claude Haiku 5.5 came out Oct 7, 2026; Gemini 3.8 Flash came out Sep 2, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 5.5 Jun 2026, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 May 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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