Which model is better: DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 46.4% cheaper for input tokens ($0.07 vs. $0.14 per 1M tokens) and $0.30 vs. $0.28 for output tokens (1.9x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite delivers lower response latency at 78ms TTFT (332ms faster than DeepSeek V3) with 265 vs. 78 tok/s throughput. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite leads coding evaluations at 55.4% SWE-bench Verified vs. 42.0% for DeepSeek V3 and 68.4% vs. 59.1% on GPQA Diamond.
Verified daily via automated API latency tests and official documentation.
Zero-Shot RAG Verified
Verified Performance & Unit Economics Delta (12 Dimensions)
Daily synchronized metrics across token pricing, prompt cache economics, latency, throughput, and 5 capability benchmarks.
Metric / Dimension
DeepSeek V3
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.14
$0.07
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 1.9x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens
$0.28
$0.30
DeepSeek V3 (6.7% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M
$0.014
$0.015
DeepSeek V3 is 1.1x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M
$0.14
$0.07
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 1.9x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output)
131k (8k out)
1,049k (33k out)
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (8.0x larger context)
Avg TTFT Response Latency
410ms
78ms
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (332ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput)
78 tok/s
265 tok/s
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (+187 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding)
42%
55.4%
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (+13.4% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM)
59.1%
68.4%
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (+9.3% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline)
75.9%
80.1%
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (+4.2% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic)
90.2%
90.2%
Comparable Score
Inference Value Score (IVR)
75 / 100
81.5 / 100
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (+6.5 pts)
Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster
Model production workloads across prompt, completion, and cached context tokens, or switch models on the fly.
Which is cheaper: DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper at $0.075/1M input tokens ($0.30/1M output) compared to $0.14/1M input ($0.28/1M output) for DeepSeek V3.
Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: DeepSeek V3 or Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite delivers faster first-token latency at 78ms TTFT (265 tok/s throughput) compared to 410ms TTFT (78 tok/s) for DeepSeek V3.
How do DeepSeek V3 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?
On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, DeepSeek V3 scores 42% versus 55.4% for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, DeepSeek V3 scores 59.1% versus 68.4% for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (and 90.2% vs 90.2% on MATH-500).
When should you choose DeepSeek V3?
Choose DeepSeek V3 (DeepSeek) for cost-sensitive batch text processing, drafting, and open-weight self-hosted inference — offering a 131k context window, 410ms TTFT, and $0.14/1M input pricing ($0.014/1M cached reads).
When should you choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?
Choose Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (Google) for high-frequency data pipelines, real-time routing, large-scale document tagging, and ultra-low-cost conversational assistants — offering a 1,048k context window, 78ms TTFT, and $0.07/1M input pricing ($0.015/1M cached reads).
