DeepSeek V3.2 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
DeepSeek V3.2 and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview sit at opposite ends of the price-vs-capability curve. DeepSeek is a text-only, sparse-attention model built for cheap, high-throughput reasoning and tool use. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is Google's frontier multimodal model with a context window 8x larger and mandatory reasoning. Both are available on OpenKey with a single API key and a flat 3% fee over provider list price — the comparison below is about which one fits your workload, not which one is objectively better.
Spec vs spec
| Spec | DeepSeek V3.2 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 131K | 1.0M |
| Max output | 64K | 66K |
| Input modalities | text | audio, file, image, text, video |
| Output modalities | text | text |
| Released | Dec 1, 2025 | Feb 19, 2026 |
| Reasoning | optional | always on |
Pricing
Per 1M tokens. Provider price plus the flat 3% fee — the sum is what you pay.
deepseek/deepseek-v3.2
Input · 1M tokens
$0.229 + 3%$0.236
Output · 1M tokens
$0.343 + 3%$0.353
Cache read · 1M tokens
$0.023 + 3%$0.024
FEE — FLAT, EVERY MODEL3%
google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview
Input · 1M tokens
$2.00 + 3%$2.06
Output · 1M tokens
$12.00 + 3%$12.36
Cache read · 1M tokens
$0.200 + 3%$0.206
Cache write · 1M tokens
$0.375 + 3%$0.386
FEE — FLAT, EVERY MODEL3%
One workload, priced on both
10M input + 2M output tokens at each model's price, flat 3% fee included.
deepseek/deepseek-v3.2Cheaper
$3.06
$2.97 provider + 3%
google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview
$45.32
$44.00 provider + 3%
Benchmarks
Design Arena categories where both models have results. Higher Elo and lower rank win.
| DeepSeek V3.2 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Elo | Rank | Elo | Rank |
| 3D | 1210 | #41 | 1303 | #17 |
| ASCII art | 1129 | #42 | 1314 | #4 |
| Code | 1213 | #48 | 1290 | #18 |
| Data viz | 1203 | #48 | 1270 | #20 |
| Game dev | 1197 | #50 | 1264 | #26 |
| SVG | 1089 | #54 | 1347 | #2 |
| UI components | 1203 | #47 | 1322 | #8 |
| Websites | 1217 | #46 | 1294 | #15 |
Head-to-head preference voting. How we filter and rank
Pricing math
DeepSeek V3.2 costs $0.2288/M input and $0.3432/M output from the provider; on OpenKey that's $0.235664/M and $0.353496/M after the flat 3% fee ($0.2288 x 1.03, $0.3432 x 1.03). Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview costs $2.00/M input and $12.00/M output provider-side, or $2.06/M and $12.36/M on OpenKey ($2.00 x 1.03, $12.00 x 1.03). Run the same job — 10M input tokens, 2M output tokens — through each: DeepSeek V3.2 costs $2.97 total, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview costs $44.00. That's an input price ratio of 0.11 (DeepSeek is about 11% of Gemini's input cost) and Gemini running roughly 15x more expensive for this exact workload. If you're doing batch summarization, RAG pipelines, or agent loops with lots of tokens, this difference compounds fast.
Coding and design benchmarks
On Design Arena's model-category benchmarks, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview outranks DeepSeek V3.2 across every shared category: SVG (rank 2 vs rank 54, elo 1347 vs 1089), asciiart (rank 4 vs rank 42, elo 1314 vs 1129), uicomponent (rank 8 vs rank 47, elo 1322 vs 1203), codecategories (rank 18 vs rank 48, elo 1290 vs 1213), dataviz (rank 20 vs rank 48, elo 1270 vs 1203), website (rank 15 vs rank 46, elo 1294 vs 1217), and gamedev (rank 26 vs rank 50, elo 1264 vs 1197). Gemini also has Artificial Analysis scores DeepSeek lacks in this data: intelligence index 46.5, coding index 68.8, agentic index 21.4. Gemini additionally has agent-arena scores (for example htmlslides rank 6, godotgamedev rank 6) that DeepSeek has no equivalent entries for.
Context and multimodal reach
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview handles 1,048,576 tokens of context against DeepSeek V3.2's 131,072 — a context ratio of 0.12, meaning DeepSeek offers about 12% of Gemini's window. Max output is close: 65,536 tokens for Gemini versus 64,000 for DeepSeek. Modality is the sharper split: DeepSeek is text-to-text only, while Gemini accepts text, image, audio, video, and file inputs and outputs text. If your workload involves ingesting PDFs, screenshots, or video frames alongside text, DeepSeek is not an option regardless of price.
When to pick each
Pick DeepSeek V3.2 for cost-sensitive text pipelines: batch processing, high-volume chat, code review at scale, or any agentic loop where token count is large and multimodal input isn't needed. It also supports a wider parameter set (logit_bias, logprobs, top_logprobs, min_p, repetition_penalty) useful for fine-grained sampling control that Gemini's supported-parameter list doesn't expose. Pick Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview when you need the long context window, multimodal inputs, or the higher-ranked coding and design output and can absorb the roughly 15x cost premium shown in the workload comparison above. Gemini's reasoning is mandatory (low, medium, or high effort, default medium) while DeepSeek's reasoning is optional and off by default — factor that into latency expectations for reasoning-heavy tasks.
Which model for which job
| Use case | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| High-volume batch text processing | DeepSeek V3.2 | $2.97 vs $44.00 for a 10M-in/2M-out workload |
| Multimodal input (image, audio, video, file) | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | DeepSeek is text-only; Gemini accepts five input modalities |
| Long-document or full-codebase context | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | 1,048,576 token context vs DeepSeek's 131,072 |
| SVG or UI component generation | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Ranks 2 and 8 respectively vs DeepSeek's ranks 54 and 47 |
| Cost-capped agentic tool-use loops | DeepSeek V3.2 | Input price is about 11% of Gemini's per the computed price ratio |
| Fine-grained sampling control (logprobs, top_k) | DeepSeek V3.2 | Supports logit_bias, logprobs, top_logprobs, min_p; Gemini's parameter list omits these |
Questions
- How much cheaper is DeepSeek V3.2 than Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview?
- For a 10M-input/2M-output workload, DeepSeek V3.2 costs $2.97 total versus $44.00 for Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview — roughly 15x cheaper. The gap comes mostly from output pricing: $0.3432/M for DeepSeek versus $12.00/M for Gemini at provider rates.
- Which model has the larger context window?
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview supports 1,048,576 tokens of context, compared to DeepSeek V3.2's 131,072 tokens. That's a context ratio of 0.12 — DeepSeek gives you about 12% of Gemini's window, so pick Gemini for full-codebase or long-document tasks.
- Does DeepSeek V3.2 support image or audio input?
- No. DeepSeek V3.2 is text-to-text only. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview accepts text, image, audio, video, and file inputs and outputs text, so any multimodal task requires Gemini.
- Which model scores better on coding benchmarks?
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview leads across Design Arena's coding-related categories, including SVG (rank 2 vs DeepSeek's rank 54) and codecategories (rank 18 vs rank 48). Gemini also reports an Artificial Analysis coding index of 68.8, a metric not available for DeepSeek in this data.