DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs Gemini 4 Argon (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek or Gemini 4 Argon (High) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Argon (High) scores 44.1 points higher (52.6 vs 8.5) but costs 95× as much to run the benchmark ($2407 vs $25.4; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Argon (High) when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | Gemini 4 Argon (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 52.6 | +518.8% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 6.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $2,407.24 | +9388.5% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 95× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.89s | 65.70s | +452.6% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 452.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Gemini 4 Argon (High) vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 518.8% more intelligence, 9388.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 452.6% 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 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 V3 (Dec '24)Gemini 4 Argon (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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