Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3 Flash benchmark

Name: DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3 Flash AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek R1 (DeepSeek) and Gemini 3 Flash (Google) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Gemini 3 Flash is ahead by 137 points (1,495 vs 1,358; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Gemini 3 Flash resolves 75.8% versus 65.2% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Gemini 3 Flash streams faster (190 tok/s) while DeepSeek R1 is the cheaper output token ($2.5/1M). Gemini 3 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 Flash

Fast Google frontier-adjacent model. Near-top official SWE-bench at a fraction of Opus price.

Elo 1,495$3/1M 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 (2)vsGemini 3 Flash (8)

DeepSeek R1: 2W (20%)Overall: Gemini 3 FlashGemini 3 Flash: 8W (80%)

← DeepSeek R1Gemini 3 Flash →

Gemini 3 Flash (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,495

Coding Elo

—vs1,510

SWE-bench

65.2%vs75.8%

LiveBench

59%vs66.8%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs78.4%

DeepSeek R1: 1WGemini 3 Flash: 4W

Gemini 3 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs190 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs95 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGemini 3 Flash: 2W

Gemini 3 Flash (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$3/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$0.5/1M

Context window

64kvs1M

DeepSeek R1: 1WGemini 3 Flash: 2W

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 Flash 5/6

Preference Elo

Gemini 3 Flash

137 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Gemini 3 Flash

128 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek R1

$0.50/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,358

EloHigh is better

1,495+10%

Code Elo

High is better

—

Code EloHigh is better

1,510

LiveBench

High is better

59%

LiveBenchHigh is better

66.8%+13%

SWE-bench

High is better

65.2%

SWE-benchHigh is better

75.8%+16%

GPQA

High is better

+2%79.8%

GPQAHigh is better

78.4%

TTFT

Low is better

420 ms

TTFTLow is better

95 ms+342%

Speed

High is better

62 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

190 tok/s+206%

In $

Low is better

$0.7/1M

In $Low is better

$0.5/1M+40%

Out $

Low is better

+20%$2.5/1M

Out $Low is better

$3/1M

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 1% 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 Flash$62.50 / mo

In: $17.50Out: $45.00

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek R1 is estimated to save $0.50/month ($6/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

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

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGemini 3 Flash

Higher SWE-bench (75.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

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

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 3 Flash

Lower TTFT (95 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 3 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 3 Flash

Gemini 3 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Gemini 3 Flash	Higher SWE-bench (75.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 3 Flash	Lower TTFT (95 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 3 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 3 Flash	Gemini 3 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchMar 16, 2026

Gemini 3 Flash: near-top official SWE-bench at a fraction of Opus

March 2026 speed SKU. Still a useful cheap-coding compare even after 3.6/3.7 Flash.

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 Flash

Elo 1,495

LiveBench66.8%

SWE-bench75.8%

Speed190 tok/s

Output cost$3/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3 Flash?: Gemini 3 Flash has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,495). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3 Flash?: Gemini 3 Flash leads SWE-bench at 75.8% 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 $3/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3 Flash?: Gemini 3 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (95 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Gemini 3 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 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 Flash matchups →

DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek V3 (previous deepseek)DeepSeek R1 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro (next deepseek)Gemini 3 Flash vs Gemini 2.5 Flash (previous gemini-flash)Gemini 3 Flash vs Gemini 3.6 Flash (next gemini-flash)Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking vs Gemini 3 Flash DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash

DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3 Flash benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek R1 (2)vsGemini 3 Flash (8)

DeepSeek R1: 2W (20%)Overall: Gemini 3 FlashGemini 3 Flash: 8W (80%)

← DeepSeek R1Gemini 3 Flash →

Gemini 3 Flash (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,358vs1,495

Coding Elo

—vs1,510

SWE-bench

65.2%vs75.8%

LiveBench

59%vs66.8%

GPQA Diamond

79.8%vs78.4%

DeepSeek R1: 1WGemini 3 Flash: 4W

Gemini 3 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

62 tok/svs190 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs95 ms

DeepSeek R1: 0WGemini 3 Flash: 2W

Gemini 3 Flash (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.5/1Mvs$3/1M

Input price

$0.7/1Mvs$0.5/1M

Context window

64kvs1M

DeepSeek R1: 1WGemini 3 Flash: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsGemini 3 Flash

Higher SWE-bench (75.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek R1

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

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 3 Flash

Lower TTFT (95 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 3 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 3 Flash

Gemini 3 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Gemini 3 Flash	Higher SWE-bench (75.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek R1	Lower output list price ($2.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 3 Flash	Lower TTFT (95 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 3 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 3 Flash	Gemini 3 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3 Flash?

Gemini 3 Flash has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,495). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3 Flash?

Gemini 3 Flash leads SWE-bench at 75.8% 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 $3/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek R1 or Gemini 3 Flash?

Gemini 3 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (95 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Gemini 3 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 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 Flash

Gemini 3 Flash

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 3 Flash: near-top official SWE-bench at a fraction of Opus

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 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 Flash

Gemini 3 Flash

DeepSeek R1

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 3 Flash: near-top official SWE-bench at a fraction of Opus

DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek R1

Gemini 3 Flash

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons