Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

DeepSeek V3 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash benchmark

Name: DeepSeek V3 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek V3 (DeepSeek) and Gemini 2.5 Flash (Google) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, DeepSeek V3 is ahead by 15 points (1,310 vs 1,295; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, DeepSeek V3 resolves 48.6% versus 48% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Gemini 2.5 Flash streams faster (185 tok/s) while DeepSeek V3 is the cheaper output token ($1.03/1M). Gemini 2.5 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 V3

Prior DeepSeek flagship. Baseline for v3 vs v4.

Elo 1,310$1.0287/1M out

Google

Gemini 2.5 Flash

Previous Google speed workhorse.

Elo 1,295$2.5/1M out

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Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek V3 (5)vsGemini 2.5 Flash (4)

DeepSeek V3: 5W (56%)Overall: DeepSeek V3Gemini 2.5 Flash: 4W (44%)

← DeepSeek V3Gemini 2.5 Flash →

DeepSeek V3 (3/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,310vs1,295

Coding Elo

—vs—

SWE-bench

48.6%vs48%

LiveBench

55.4%vs51.4%

GPQA Diamond

59.1%vs68.2%

DeepSeek V3: 3WGemini 2.5 Flash: 1W

Gemini 2.5 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

66 tok/svs185 tok/s

Time to first token

380 msvs110 ms

DeepSeek V3: 0WGemini 2.5 Flash: 2W

DeepSeek V3 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$1.03/1Mvs$2.5/1M

Input price

$0.26/1Mvs$0.3/1M

Context window

164kvs1M

DeepSeek V3: 2WGemini 2.5 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 2.5 Flash 3/6

Preference Elo

DeepSeek V3

15 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Gemini 2.5 Flash

119 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek V3

$1.47/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+1%1,310

EloHigh is better

1,295

LiveBench

High is better

+8%55.4%

LiveBenchHigh is better

51.4%

SWE-bench

High is better

+1%48.6%

SWE-benchHigh is better

48%

GPQA

High is better

59.1%

GPQAHigh is better

68.2%+15%

TTFT

Low is better

380 ms

TTFTLow is better

110 ms+245%

Speed

High is better

66 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

185 tok/s+180%

In $

Low is better

+17%$0.26/1M

In $Low is better

$0.3/1M

Out $

Low is better

+143%$1.03/1M

Out $Low is better

$2.5/1M

Context

High is better

164k

ContextHigh is better

1M+540%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 49% with DeepSeek V3

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

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

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

DeepSeek V3$24.44 / mo

In: $9.01Out: $15.43

Gemini 2.5 Flash$48.00 / mo

In: $10.50Out: $37.50

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek V3 is estimated to save $23.56/month ($283/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
DeepSeek V3:Pick DeepSeek V3 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Gemini 2.5 Flash:Pick Gemini 2.5 Flash when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Gemini 2.5 Flash:Pick Gemini 2.5 Flash for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek V3

Higher SWE-bench (48.6%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V3

Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 2.5 Flash

Lower TTFT (110 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 2.5 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 2.5 Flash

Gemini 2.5 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek V3	Higher SWE-bench (48.6%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V3	Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Lower TTFT (110 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Gemini 2.5 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchMar 25, 2025

Gemini 2.5 Flash: previous Google speed workhorse, still a baseline

Useful as a cheap historical compare. 3.7 Flash is the 2026 volume SKU.

Community Sentiment

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LIVE

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3

Elo 1,310

LiveBench55.4%

SWE-bench48.6%

Speed66 tok/s

Output cost$1.03/1M

Google

Gemini 2.5 Flash

Elo 1,295

LiveBench51.4%

SWE-bench48%

Speed185 tok/s

Output cost$2.5/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?: DeepSeek V3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,310). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?: DeepSeek V3 leads SWE-bench at 48.6% vs 48%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek V3 output tokens are $1.03/1M versus $2.5/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?: Gemini 2.5 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (110 ms vs 380 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 164k.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek V3 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 V3 and Gemini 2.5 Flash Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All DeepSeek V3 matchups →|All Gemini 2.5 Flash matchups →

DeepSeek V3 vs DeepSeek Coder V2 (previous deepseek)DeepSeek V3 vs DeepSeek R1 (next deepseek)Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (previous gemini-flash)Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Gemini 3 Flash (next gemini-flash)Gemini 3 Pro vs DeepSeek V3 Gemini 3 Flash vs DeepSeek V3

DeepSeek V3 vs Gemini 2.5 Flash benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek V3 (5)vsGemini 2.5 Flash (4)

DeepSeek V3: 5W (56%)Overall: DeepSeek V3Gemini 2.5 Flash: 4W (44%)

← DeepSeek V3Gemini 2.5 Flash →

DeepSeek V3 (3/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,310vs1,295

Coding Elo

—vs—

SWE-bench

48.6%vs48%

LiveBench

55.4%vs51.4%

GPQA Diamond

59.1%vs68.2%

DeepSeek V3: 3WGemini 2.5 Flash: 1W

Gemini 2.5 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

66 tok/svs185 tok/s

Time to first token

380 msvs110 ms

DeepSeek V3: 0WGemini 2.5 Flash: 2W

DeepSeek V3 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$1.03/1Mvs$2.5/1M

Input price

$0.26/1Mvs$0.3/1M

Context window

164kvs1M

DeepSeek V3: 2WGemini 2.5 Flash: 1W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek V3

Higher SWE-bench (48.6%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V3

Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIGemini 2.5 Flash

Lower TTFT (110 ms).

Long-document RAGGemini 2.5 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionGemini 2.5 Flash

Gemini 2.5 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek V3	Higher SWE-bench (48.6%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V3	Lower output list price ($1.03/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Lower TTFT (110 ms).
Long-document RAG	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Gemini 2.5 Flash	Gemini 2.5 Flash is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

DeepSeek V3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,310). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

DeepSeek V3 leads SWE-bench at 48.6% vs 48%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek V3 output tokens are $1.03/1M versus $2.5/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

Gemini 2.5 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (110 ms vs 380 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 164k.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek V3 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 V3 and Gemini 2.5 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

DeepSeek V3

Gemini 2.5 Flash

DeepSeek V3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 2.5 Flash: previous Google speed workhorse, still a baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek V3

Gemini 2.5 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

DeepSeek V3

Gemini 2.5 Flash

DeepSeek V3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Gemini 2.5 Flash: previous Google speed workhorse, still a baseline

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek V3

Gemini 2.5 Flash

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons