DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Gemini 4 Argon (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Gemini 4 Argon (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 4 Argon (High) scores 41.2 points higher (52.6 vs 11.4) but costs 5.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2407 vs $461; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Argon (High) when you need intelligence above 11.4, and DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when 11.4 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Gemini 4 Argon (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 52.6 | +361.4% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 4.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $2,407.24 | +422.5% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 5.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.16s | 64.86s | +221.7% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 221.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Gemini 4 Argon (High) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 361.4% more intelligence, 422.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 221.7% 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 4 Argon (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Gemini 4 Argon (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/gemini-4-argon · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/gemini-4-argon?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill