Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite vs DeepSeek Flash (V4.1)
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is the cheaper of the two across every workload shape tested below. Headline rates are $0.1 in / $0.4 out for Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite versus $0.3 in / $1.2 out for DeepSeek Flash (V4.1), per million tokens.
Real monthly cost, three workloads
| Workload | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | DeepSeek Flash (V4.1) | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot 1.5k in / 400 out · 100k req/mo · 30% cached | $26.95 | $79.77 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (3.0× cheaper) |
| RAG / doc Q&A 12k in / 700 out · 50k req/mo · 60% cached | $41.60 | $116.16 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (2.8× cheaper) |
| Coding agent 25k in / 2.5k out · 20k req/mo · 80% cached | $34.00 | $92.40 | Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (2.7× cheaper) |
Costs include prompt caching at the stated hit rate and per-model tokenizer correction. Adjust for your own traffic →
Specifications side by side
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | DeepSeek Flash (V4.1) | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | |
| Input / M tokens | $0.1 | $0.3 |
| Output / M tokens | $0.4 | $1.2 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | $0.006 |
| Context window | — | 1000K |
| Batch discount | −50% | — |
| Tokenizer factor | ×1 | ×1 |
| Min prefix to cache | — | — |
| Announced retirement | — | — |
Which should you pick?
On cost alone, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite wins every workload shape above.
Full detail: Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite · DeepSeek Flash (V4.1)
All figures verified 2026-10-05 against official provider documentation. Fields a provider does not publish are shown as “—” rather than estimated.