DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) scores 29.5 points higher (40.9 vs 11.4) but costs 3.5× as much to run the benchmark ($1623 vs $461; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when you need intelligence above 11.4, and DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when 11.4 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 40.9 | +258.8% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 3.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $1,622.73 | +252.2% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 3.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.14s | 32.17s | +59.7% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 59.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 258.8% more intelligence, 252.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 59.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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