DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Gemini 3.1 Pro

DeepSeek V4 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro are both current production-tier models. DeepSeek V4 Flash is meaningfully cheaper at $0.14 / $0.28 per 1M. Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge.

Specs side by side

Metric
DeepSeek
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Google
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Input price (per 1M)$0.14$2
Output price (per 1M)$0.28$12
Context window1M tokens2M tokens
Speed tierbalancedbalanced
Open weightsYesNo
EU regionNoYes
Free tierOpenRouterNo
Prompt cachingYesYes
Vision inputNoYes
Extended thinkingYesYes

When to choose each

DeepSeek Free tier

Choose DeepSeek V4 Flash if…

  • Cost is a priority ($0.14 / $0.28 per 1M vs $2 / $12 per 1M)
  • You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning
  • You want a free tier for prototyping
Google

Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro if…

  • You need 2M context (2× more than DeepSeek V4 Flash)
  • EU data residency is required
  • HIPAA eligibility is required
  • You need image input / vision
  • Coding is central to your workload
  • Reasoning is central to your workload

Benchmark delta

DeepSeek V4 Flash leads on

DeepSeek V4 Flash has no meaningful benchmark lead in this pair.

Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on

  • Coding
  • Reasoning
  • General knowledge
  • Long-context retrieval
  • Instruction following
  • Multilingual
  • Tool use

FAQ — DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Gemini 3.1 Pro

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Gemini 3.1 Pro — which is better?

DeepSeek V4 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro are both current production-tier models. DeepSeek V4 Flash is meaningfully cheaper at $0.14 / $0.28 per 1M. Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge. The right pick depends on your use case — see "When to choose each" above for a data-driven decision.

How does DeepSeek V4 Flash pricing compare to Gemini 3.1 Pro?

DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.14 / $0.28 per 1M vs Gemini 3.1 Pro at $2 / $12 per 1M. DeepSeek V4 Flash is cheaper on output tokens by roughly 4186%. Both support prompt caching, which reduces effective cost by 80-90% on repeat system prompts.

Does DeepSeek V4 Flash or Gemini 3.1 Pro have the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Pro has a 2M-token context window — 2× the 1M context of DeepSeek V4 Flash. Enough for entire codebases, books, or multi-document RAG.

Is there a free tier for DeepSeek V4 Flash or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

DeepSeek V4 Flash: yes — Often available free via OpenRouter; official API is extremely cheap ($0.14 cache miss, $0.0028 cached input). Gemini 3.1 Pro: no — Paid-only since 2026-04-01 (previously had free tier via AI Studio).

Which is better for coding — DeepSeek V4 Flash or Gemini 3.1 Pro?

Gemini 3.1 Pro leads on coding benchmarks (DeepSeek V4 Flash: 89/100, Gemini 3.1 Pro: 94/100). For production coding agents also weigh tool-use performance — DeepSeek V4 Flash scores 84, Gemini 3.1 Pro scores 91.