DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 28.4 points higher (39.8 vs 11.4) but costs 2.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $461; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25).
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 39.8 | +249.1% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 3.5× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $1,100.06 | +138.8% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 2.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.20s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| 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 (Medium) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 249.1% more intelligence, 138.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
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 (Medium) 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 (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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