Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 has the lowest input price. Per 1M input tokens: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 from $0.10 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite from $0.30.

Can I switch between DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite without changing my code?

Yes. All of them are served through FastRouter's OpenAI-compatible API, so switching is a change of the model parameter (deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017, google/gemini-3.5-flash-lite).

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite

Side-by-side pricing per provider, context window, benchmark scores and speed, all on one OpenAI-compatible API.

Estimate monthly cost for these models

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 DeepSeekdeepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Googlegoogle/gemini-3.5-flash-lite

Creator

DeepSeek

Google

Released

Oct 17, 2026

Jul 21, 2026

Context window

1.05M

Max output

944K

66K

Input / 1MLowest provider price

$0.10$0.10–$0.30 across 4

$0.30

Output / 1MLowest provider price

$0.29$0.29–$1.20 across 4

$2.50

Providers

IntelligenceArtificial Analysis index

32.5

11.7

LatencyMedian time to first token

—

1.4s

ThroughputMedian tokens per second

—

<1 t/s

Accepts

Text, Image

Text, Image, Audio, Video, Files

Produces

Text

Tool calling

Yes

Structured output

Yes

Reasoning

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: summary

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite are both available through FastRouter's OpenAI-compatible API, so switching between them is a change of model id, not a new integration.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, from DeepSeek, has a 1,048,576-token context window, costs from $0.10/1M input and $0.29/1M output tokens across 4 providers and scores 32.5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, from Google, has a 1,048,576-token context window, costs from $0.30/1M input and $2.50/1M output tokens across 2 providers and scores 11.7 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is the cheapest on input, 3× cheaper than the next model and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 scores highest for intelligence.

Switch with one line

client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.fastrouter.ai/api/v1", api_key="<FASTROUTER_API_KEY>") client.chat.completions.create(model="deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017", messages=[...]) # or client.chat.completions.create(model="google/gemini-3.5-flash-lite", messages=[...])

Full API docs

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More comparisons

Benchmark scores sourced from ArtificialAnalysis