DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek or Gemini 3.6 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 3.6 Flash (High) scores 25.5 points higher (34.0 vs 8.5) but costs 64× as much to run the benchmark ($1614 vs $25.4; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 34.0 | +300.0% Gemini 3.6 Flash (Hig… is 4.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $1,614.42 | +6263.5% Gemini 3.6 Flash (Hig… is 64× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.23s | 18.02s | +76.1% Gemini 3.6 Flash (Hig… is 76.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 300.0% more intelligence, 6263.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 76.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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