Model comparison - Similar price, same tier

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is from DeepSeek and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is from Google. On list price, both charge $0.30 per 1M input tokens, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite charges 2.1x DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's output price ($2.50 vs $1.20 per 1M tokens). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has a 1,000,000-token context window and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 tokens; max output is 393,216 and 65,536 tokens per response. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was released on September 10, 2026 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite on July 21, 2026. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash publishes open weights (MIT); Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is closed-weights.

Last verified October 17, 2026 from each provider's pricing page. All sources

DeepSeek - Open

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Input / 1M: $0.30
Output / 1M: $1.20
Context: 1M

Google - Closed

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Input / 1M: $0.30
Output / 1M: $2.50
Context: 1.05M

Side-by-side specs

Spec	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Provider	DeepSeek	Google
Input / 1M tokens	$0.30	$0.30
Output / 1M tokens	$1.20	$2.50
Cache read / 1M	$0.006	$0.03
Batch input / 1M	-	$0.15
Batch output / 1M	-	$1.25
Context window	1,000,000	1,048,576
Max output	393,216	65,536
Release date	September 10, 2026	July 21, 2026
Weights	Open	Closed
License	MIT	-
API model id	`deepseek-flash`	`gemini-3.5-flash-lite`
AI Gateway id	`deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017`	`google/gemini-3.5-flash-lite`
Last verified	October 17, 2026	October 17, 2026

Prices in USD per 1M tokens at each provider's standard first-party rate. A dash means the provider does not bill that item separately or no primary page states it.

What each costs in practice

The same three workloads every model page uses, worked from each model's standard list rates. Swap in your own token counts with the math on each model's page.

Workload	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
One agent session1M input tokens and 100K output tokens, no caching.	$0.42	$0.55
A chat app10,000 requests a day at 2K input and 500 output tokens each.	$12.00$360.00 per 30-day month	$18.50$555.00 per 30-day month
The same session at a 90% cache hit90% of the input is read from the prompt cache. The one-time cache write premium is not included.	$0.1554	$0.307

Show the math

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

One agent sessionInput: 1M x $0.30 = $0.30Output: 0.1M x $1.20 = $0.12
A chat appInput: 20M x $0.30 = $6.00Output: 5M x $1.20 = $6.00
The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.006 = $0.0054Uncached input: 0.1M x $0.30 = $0.03Output: 0.1M x $1.20 = $0.12

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

One agent sessionInput: 1M x $0.30 = $0.30Output: 0.1M x $2.50 = $0.25
A chat appInput: 20M x $0.30 = $6.00Output: 5M x $2.50 = $12.50
The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.03 = $0.027Uncached input: 0.1M x $0.30 = $0.03Output: 0.1M x $2.50 = $0.25

Benchmarks under the same setting

No board in the benchmark directory lists both DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite under the same setting, so there is no like-for-like score to show here.

Set them up in your tools

Step-by-step guides whose official docs list DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by model id.

Model pages

DeepSeekDeepSeek V4.1 Flash pricing and specsFull rate card, worked cost examples and sources. Open weights.GoogleGemini 3.5 Flash-Lite pricing and specsFull rate card, worked cost examples and sources. Closed weights.

FAQ

How do DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite compare on price?

On list price, both charge $0.30 per 1M input tokens, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite charges 2.1x DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's output price ($2.50 vs $1.20 per 1M tokens). For one agent session of 1M input and 100K output tokens with no caching, that is $0.42 on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and $0.55 on Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. Prices are each provider's first-party list rates, verified October 17, 2026 and October 17, 2026.

What are the context windows of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has a 1,000,000-token context window and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 1,048,576 tokens; max output is 393,216 and 65,536 tokens per response.

Are DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite open weights?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's weights are published at huggingface.co under the MIT. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is closed-weights and is called through Google's API as gemini-3.5-flash-lite.

More comparisons

Sources

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash verified October 17, 2026 from api-docs.deepseek.com; Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite verified October 17, 2026 from ai.google.dev. This page is as current as the older of the two: October 17, 2026.

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