Head-to-head · frontier vs frontier

DeepSeek-V3.2 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning: which model should you choose?

We compared DeepSeek-V3.2 and Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. DeepSeek-V3.2 has the stronger average benchmark score; DeepSeek-V3.2 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek-V3.2

DeepSeek-V3.2 is a frontier model from DeepSeek. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $5.88 per million input tokens and $24.70 per million output tokens, and averages 84.0 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$5.88 / 1M
Output
$24.70 / 1M
Context
1,000,000
Avg score
84.0
Open weights
Yes
Full DeepSeek-V3.2 page
Google DeepMind

Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning

Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning is a frontier model from Google DeepMind. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $16.81 per million input tokens and $67.95 per million output tokens, and averages 83.8 across the index's benchmark suite.

Input
$16.81 / 1M
Output
$67.95 / 1M
Context
128,000
Avg score
83.8
Open weights
No
Full Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning page

Specification comparison

SpecDeepSeek-V3.2Gemini 2.5 Pro ReasoningEdge
Input price / 1M$5.88$16.81A
Output price / 1M$24.70$67.95A
Context window1,000,000128,000A
Max output8,1924,096A
Average score84.083.8A
Arena Elo1455.61472.1B
Open weightsYesNoA

Benchmark comparison

DeepSeek-V3.2 wins 6, Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning wins 6, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.

BenchmarkDeepSeek-V3.2Gemini 2.5 Pro ReasoningGapWinner
MMLU-Pro86.986.80.1DeepSeek-V3.2
GPQA Diamond79.780.00.3Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning
SWE-bench Verified74.471.23.2DeepSeek-V3.2
HumanEval89.786.73.0DeepSeek-V3.2
MATH-50089.787.91.8DeepSeek-V3.2
AIME 202579.684.24.6Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning
LiveCodeBench80.474.85.6DeepSeek-V3.2
IFEval89.490.81.4Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning
TruthfulQA84.584.00.5DeepSeek-V3.2
HellaSwag90.292.11.9Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning
MMMU79.982.82.9Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning
Arena Elo1455.61472.116.5Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning

Price analysis

On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, DeepSeek-V3.2 costs about $10.59 per million tokens and Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning costs about $29.59. DeepSeek-V3.2 is roughly 64% cheaper than Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.

DeepSeek-V3.2 has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 128,000 for Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.

Verdict

Across 12 shared benchmarks, DeepSeek-V3.2 wins 6, Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning wins 6, and 0 are tied. On the index average, DeepSeek-V3.2 leads Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning by 0.2 points (84.0 versus 83.8).

The price picture favours DeepSeek-V3.2. The context picture favours DeepSeek-V3.2. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.

If you need a single default, start with DeepSeek-V3.2 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

Choose DeepSeek-V3.2 if

  • You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
  • Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
  • You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
  • You need the larger 8,192-token output limit.

Choose Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning if

  • You prefer Google DeepMind's tooling or already use it.

FAQ

Is DeepSeek-V3.2 better than Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning?

On the index average, DeepSeek-V3.2 leads Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning by 0.2 points (84.0 versus 83.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. DeepSeek-V3.2 wins 6 benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning wins 6.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.2 or Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning?

DeepSeek-V3.2 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $10.59 per million tokens, versus $29.59 for Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning.

Which has the larger context window?

DeepSeek-V3.2 has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning has 128,000 tokens.

Are these models open weights?

DeepSeek-V3.2 is open weights; Gemini 2.5 Pro Reasoning is proprietary.

Which should I choose for production?

If you need a single default, start with DeepSeek-V3.2 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.

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