Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash benchmark

Name: DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) and Gemini 3.6 Flash (Google) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Gemini 3.6 Flash is ahead by 148 points (1,506 vs 1,358; seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Gemini 3.6 Flash resolves 70.8% versus 65.2% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). Gemini 3.6 Flash streams faster (198 tok/s) while DeepSeek R1 is the cheaper output token ($2.5/1M). Gemini 3.6 Flash has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1

Open-weights reasoning model trained with large-scale RL.

Elo 1,358$2.5/1M out

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Google Jul 21 workhorse. Now shares the 3.7 Flash introductory $0.75/$3.75 rate through Dec 31 2026.

Elo 1,506$3.75/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek R1 (3)vsGemini 3.6 Flash (7)

DeepSeek R1: 3W (30%)Overall: Gemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.6 Flash: 7W (70%)

← DeepSeek R1Gemini 3.6 Flash →

Gemini 3.6 Flash (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,506

Coding Elo

—vs1,514

SWE-bench

65.2%vs70.8%

LiveBench

59%vs67.2%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs79.6%

DeepSeek R1: 1WGemini 3.6 Flash: 4W

Gemini 3.6 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs198 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs92 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGemini 3.6 Flash: 2W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$3.75/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$0.75/1M

Context window

64kvs1M

DeepSeek R1: 2WGemini 3.6 Flash: 1W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageGemini 3.6 Flash 5/6

Preference Elo

Gemini 3.6 Flash

148 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Gemini 3.6 Flash

136 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek R1

$1.25/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,358

EloHigh is better

1,506+11%

Code Elo

High is better

—

Code EloHigh is better

1,514

LiveBench

High is better

59%

LiveBenchHigh is better

67.2%+14%

SWE-bench

High is better

65.2%

SWE-benchHigh is better

70.8%+9%

GPQA

High is better

79.8%

GPQAHigh is better

79.6%

TTFT

Low is better

420 ms

TTFTLow is better

92 ms+357%

Speed

High is better

62 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

198 tok/s+219%

In $

Low is better

+7%$0.7/1M

In $Low is better

$0.75/1M

Out $

Low is better

+50%$2.5/1M

Out $Low is better

$3.75/1M

Context

High is better

64k

ContextHigh is better

1M+1538%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 25% with DeepSeek R1

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

DeepSeek R1$62.00 / mo

In: $24.50Out: $37.50

Gemini 3.6 Flash$82.50 / mo

In: $26.25Out: $56.25

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek R1 is estimated to save $20.50/month ($246/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Gemini 3.6 Flash:Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
DeepSeek R1:Pick DeepSeek R1 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Gemini 3.6 Flash:Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGemini 3.6 Flash

Higher SWE-bench (70.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 3.6 Flash

Lower TTFT (92 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 3.6 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Higher SWE-bench (70.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Lower TTFT (92 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

priceAug 13, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash (Jul 21) now shares the 3.7 intro rate

Jul 21 workhorse that inherited $0.75/$3.75 through year-end. Keep the row; 3.7 is the newer sibling.

launchJan 20, 2025

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Jan 2025 reasoning model. Still searched. V4 Pro is the newer DeepSeek buy.

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LIVE

DeepSeek

DeepSeek R1

Elo 1,358

LiveBench59%

SWE-bench65.2%

Speed62 tok/s

Output cost$2.5/1M

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Elo 1,506

LiveBench67.2%

SWE-bench70.8%

Speed198 tok/s

Output cost$3.75/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?: Gemini 3.6 Flash has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,506). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?: Gemini 3.6 Flash leads SWE-bench at 70.8% vs 65.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $3.75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?: Gemini 3.6 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (92 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 64k.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek R1 is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DeepSeek R1 and Gemini 3.6 Flash Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All DeepSeek R1 matchups →|All Gemini 3.6 Flash matchups →

DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek V3 (previous deepseek)DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro (next deepseek)Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash (previous gemini-flash)Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Gemini 3.7 Flash (next gemini-flash)Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking vs Gemini 3.6 Flash DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 Flash

DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3.6 Flash benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek R1 (3)vsGemini 3.6 Flash (7)

DeepSeek R1: 3W (30%)Overall: Gemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.6 Flash: 7W (70%)

← DeepSeek R1Gemini 3.6 Flash →

Gemini 3.6 Flash (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,506

Coding Elo

—vs1,514

SWE-bench

65.2%vs70.8%

LiveBench

59%vs67.2%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs79.6%

DeepSeek R1: 1WGemini 3.6 Flash: 4W

Gemini 3.6 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs198 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs92 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGemini 3.6 Flash: 2W

DeepSeek R1 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$3.75/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$0.75/1M

Context window

64kvs1M

DeepSeek R1: 2WGemini 3.6 Flash: 1W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGemini 3.6 Flash

Higher SWE-bench (70.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 3.6 Flash

Lower TTFT (92 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 3.6 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Higher SWE-bench (70.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Lower TTFT (92 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 3.6 Flash	Gemini 3.6 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,506). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash leads SWE-bench at 70.8% vs 65.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek R1 output tokens are $2.5/1M versus $3.75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3.6 Flash?

Gemini 3.6 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (92 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 64k.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek R1 is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DeepSeek R1 and Gemini 3.6 Flash Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 3.6 Flash (Jul 21) now shares the 3.7 intro rate

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek R1

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 3.6 Flash (Jul 21) now shares the 3.7 intro rate

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek R1

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons