TL;DR — the floor fight: Gemini 3 Flash wins input ($0.075 vs $0.14), DeepSeek V4 Flash edges output ($0.28 vs $0.30). Every number below is from our weekly-verified pricing tracker (verified 2026-08-26).
Pricing side by side (per 1M tokens, USD)
| Model | Provider | Input | Output | |-------|----------|-------|--------| | Gemini 3 Flash | Google | $0.075 | $0.3 | | DeepSeek V4 Flash | DeepSeek | $0.14 | $0.28 |
Verified 2026-08-26 against official rate cards — the tracker keeps the change log.
What a real month costs
At a standard workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens/month:
- Gemini 3 Flash: $1.35
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: $1.96
On this mix, Gemini 3 Flash is the cheaper column (1.5× gap). Your ratio will differ — run your own mix through the LLM cost calculator.
Choose Gemini 3 Flash if
input-heavy work — long-context reads, RAG scans, document classification. Gemini's input floor is the cheapest way to read tokens in the tracked market.
Choose DeepSeek V4 Flash if
output-leaning bulk or DeepSeek-side infrastructure: the output edge is small but real, and regional latency may favor it.
Routing decision card
- This pair defines the absolute cost floor of the 2026 market — one of them belongs in every routing pool's bulk lane
- The crossover is pure arithmetic on your input:output ratio — run it in the calculator
- Redundancy argument: keep both configured; floor-tier work is exactly where failover should be free
- The router answer: most teams shouldn't hard-pick one — ClawRouters routes each request to whichever side fits it, so the comparison becomes a per-call decision instead of a bet.
Part of the LLM model comparison index. Prices move fast in 2026 — the tracker logs every change with dates.