DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3 Flash
Detailed comparison between DeepSeek R1 and Gemini 3 Flash for RAG applications. See which LLM best meets your accuracy, performance, and cost needs.
Model Comparison
Gemini 3 Flash takes the lead.
Both DeepSeek R1 and Gemini 3 Flash are powerful language models designed for RAG applications. However, their performance characteristics differ in important ways.
Why Gemini 3 Flash:
- Gemini 3 Flash has 319 higher ELO rating
- Gemini 3 Flash delivers better overall quality (4.95 vs 4.84)
- Gemini 3 Flash is 10.5s faster on average
- Gemini 3 Flash has a 42.1% higher win rate
Overview
Key metrics
ELO Rating
Overall ranking quality
DeepSeek R1
Gemini 3 Flash
Win Rate
Head-to-head performance
DeepSeek R1
Gemini 3 Flash
Quality Score
Overall quality metric
DeepSeek R1
Gemini 3 Flash
Average Latency
Response time
DeepSeek R1
Gemini 3 Flash
Visual Performance Analysis
Performance
ELO Rating Comparison
Win/Loss/Tie Breakdown
Quality Across Datasets (Overall Score)
Latency Distribution (ms)
Breakdown
How the models stack up
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 | Gemini 3 Flash | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Performance | |||
| ELO Rating | 1288 | 1607 | Overall ranking quality based on pairwise comparisons |
| Win Rate | 18.9% | 61.0% | Percentage of comparisons won against other models |
| Quality Score | 4.84 | 4.95 | Average quality across all RAG metrics |
| Pricing & Context | |||
| Input Price per 1M | $0.30 | $0.50 | Cost per million input tokens |
| Output Price per 1M | $1.20 | $3.00 | Cost per million output tokens |
| Context Window | 164K | 1049K | Maximum context window size |
| Release Date | 2025-01-20 | 2025-12-17 | Model release date |
| Performance Metrics | |||
| Avg Latency | 18.3s | 7.8s | Average response time across all datasets |
Dataset Performance
By benchmark
Comprehensive comparison of RAG quality metrics (correctness, faithfulness, grounding, relevance, completeness) and latency for each benchmark dataset.
MSMARCO
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 | Gemini 3 Flash | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality Metrics | |||
| Correctness | 4.67 | 4.83 | Factual accuracy of responses |
| Faithfulness | 4.70 | 4.87 | Adherence to source material |
| Grounding | 4.67 | 4.87 | Citations and context usage |
| Relevance | 4.90 | 5.00 | Query alignment and focus |
| Completeness | 4.60 | 4.90 | Coverage of all aspects |
| Overall | 4.71 | 4.89 | Average across all metrics |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 16654ms | 6852ms | Average response time |
| Min | 9675ms | 3389ms | Fastest response time |
| Max | 31255ms | 9837ms | Slowest response time |
PG
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 | Gemini 3 Flash | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality Metrics | |||
| Correctness | 4.90 | 5.00 | Factual accuracy of responses |
| Faithfulness | 4.90 | 5.00 | Adherence to source material |
| Grounding | 4.87 | 5.00 | Citations and context usage |
| Relevance | 4.93 | 5.00 | Query alignment and focus |
| Completeness | 4.60 | 5.00 | Coverage of all aspects |
| Overall | 4.84 | 5.00 | Average across all metrics |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 23334ms | 9444ms | Average response time |
| Min | 12280ms | 5346ms | Fastest response time |
| Max | 85633ms | 12549ms | Slowest response time |
SciFact
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 | Gemini 3 Flash | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality Metrics | |||
| Correctness | 5.00 | 5.00 | Factual accuracy of responses |
| Faithfulness | 5.00 | 5.00 | Adherence to source material |
| Grounding | 4.97 | 5.00 | Citations and context usage |
| Relevance | 5.00 | 4.97 | Query alignment and focus |
| Completeness | 4.87 | 4.83 | Coverage of all aspects |
| Overall | 4.97 | 4.96 | Average across all metrics |
| Latency Metrics | |||
| Mean | 14826ms | 7110ms | Average response time |
| Min | 7765ms | 3784ms | Fastest response time |
| Max | 33129ms | 18224ms | Slowest response time |
Explore More
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