Head-to-head · profiles checked Oct 5, 2026
Pick Gemini for a finished assistant tied to Google apps and DeepSeek for a pay-per-token API. Gemini has a $0 plan, AI Plus at $4.99/month and AI Pro at $19.99/month. DeepSeek's documented offer is its API: deepseek-flash starts at $0.15 per 1M input tokens off-peak. We could not verify the DeepSeek chat app's price, free status or privacy terms.
We based this comparison on our DeepSeek profile verified 2026-10-05 and our Google Gemini profile verified 2026-09-30, both built from official vendor pages; it uses no third-party benchmarks and no vendor paid for placement.
Gemini is the better-documented choice for people: a $0 plan, paid tiers from $4.99/month, web, desktop and mobile apps, and a published privacy policy with retention periods. DeepSeek's verified strength is its API, billed per 1M tokens with half-price off-peak hours and OpenAI- or Anthropic-format endpoints. We could not verify the DeepSeek chat app's price, free status or privacy terms, so a chat-to-chat comparison is incomplete. Developers who want cheap tokens should look at DeepSeek; anyone who lives in Gmail and Drive should look at Gemini.
Based on our DeepSeek profile verified 2026-10-05 and Google Gemini profile verified 2026-09-30; the DeepSeek chat app could not be checked because the site blocked automated access, and no benchmark was run.
If you only want the answer, this is the table. Everything below is the evidence from the two documented profiles.
| You want to | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Chat about everyday questions for free | Google Gemini | Gemini Free is $0 with a Google Account; DeepSeek's chat app free status is unconfirmed |
| Summarize or analyze uploaded files | Google Gemini | Gemini documents up to 10 files per prompt; DeepSeek's profile lists none for chat |
| Generate images | Google Gemini | Gemini lists image generation on Free; DeepSeek lists no image output (vision input only, on deepseek-flash) |
| Research with a long report | Google Gemini | Gemini has Deep Research on all plans; DeepSeek has a Search mode with undocumented sources |
| Work through a multi-step problem | Either | DeepSeek offers DeepThink mode; Gemini offers extended thinking levels and Deep Think on Ultra |
| Build an app on a model API | DeepSeek | DeepSeek takes OpenAI- or Anthropic-format requests with JSON output and tool calls, billed per token |
| Prototype on a free API tier | Google Gemini | Gemini Developer API has a free tier with limited models; DeepSeek bills from a granted or topped-up balance |
| Run bulk jobs at the lowest token price | DeepSeek | DeepSeek off-peak rates are half of peak, with deepseek-flash output at $0.60 per 1M tokens |
| Work inside Gmail, Drive and Calendar | Google Gemini | Gemini lists Connected Apps and Gemini in Gmail and Docs on paid plans; DeepSeek lists none |
| Deploy for a company with data controls | Google Gemini | Gemini Enterprise Business starts at $21/seat with customer data not used for training; DeepSeek lists no team plans |
| Plan | Tool | Price | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini Free | Google Gemini | $0 | Compute-based limits, 32k token context, 15 GB storage |
| Google AI Plus | Google Gemini | $4.99/mo | 2x Free usage limits, 400 GB storage |
| Google AI Pro | Google Gemini | $19.99/mo | 4x Free usage limits, 1M-token context, 5 TB storage |
| Google AI Ultra (5x) | Google Gemini | $99.99/mo | 5x AI Pro limits, Deep Think and Spark |
| Google AI Ultra (20x) | Google Gemini | $199.99/mo | 20x AI Pro limits |
| Gemini Enterprise Business | Google Gemini | From $21/seat/mo | Up to 300 seats |
| Gemini Developer API Free | Google Gemini | $0 | Limited models, lower rate limits, content used to improve Google products |
| Gemini Developer API Paid | Google Gemini | Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.75 / $3.75 per 1M input / output tokens through 2026-12-31 ($1.50 / $7.50 from 2027-01-01) | Rate limits by usage tier; Batch API at 50% cost reduction |
| deepseek-flash API | DeepSeek | $0.15 / $0.60 per 1M input / output tokens off-peak ($0.30 / $1.20 peak) | Context 1M, concurrency 2,500 |
| deepseek-v4-pro API | DeepSeek | $0.66 / $1.98 per 1M input / output tokens off-peak ($1.32 / $3.96 peak) | Context 1M, concurrency 500 |
| DeepSeek chat app | DeepSeek | Not confirmed | Not stated |
USD as published on each vendor's pricing page, checked Oct 5, 2026. DeepSeek pricing in full · Google Gemini pricing in full
| DeepSeek | Google Gemini | |
|---|---|---|
| Messages / rate limits | API concurrency 2,500 (deepseek-flash) and 500 (deepseek-v4-pro); chat app limits not stated | Compute-based limits refreshing every 5 hours up to a weekly cap; Plus 2x, Pro 4x Free; API limits tied to usage tier |
| Context / file size | 1M-token context, 384K max output | Free 32k tokens; Pro and Ultra 1M tokens; up to 10 files per prompt, 100 MB each (video 2 GB) |
| Seats / team | No team plans documented | Gemini Enterprise Business up to 300 seats; Standard / Plus for unlimited seats |
| Feature | DeepSeek | Google Gemini |
|---|---|---|
| Image generation | No | Yes |
| Voice | Not stated | Yes (Gemini Live) |
| File upload | Not stated | Yes |
| Web search | Yes (Search mode) | Yes (Deep Research) |
| Reasoning mode | Yes (DeepThink) | Yes (thinking levels, Deep Think on Ultra) |
| Agents / tools | Tool calls through the API | Gems and skills, Connected Apps, Spark agent on Ultra |
| API | Yes, billed per 1M tokens | Yes, free and paid tiers, billed separately |
| Mobile apps | Not verified | Yes |
| DeepSeek | Google Gemini | |
|---|---|---|
| Training on your data | Not stated | Personal accounts with Keep Activity on are used for training; off or temporary chats are not. Paid API and Enterprise are not |
| Retention | Not stated | Default auto-delete 18 months; temporary chats 72 hours; human-reviewed chats up to 3 years |
| Business controls | Not stated | Enterprise: no training on customer data; VPC-SC, customer-managed keys and data residency on higher editions |
Taken from each vendor's published policy pages at the time of our check. Policies change; the source links are at the bottom.
DeepSeek offers an AI chat assistant and a usage-priced API for its V4-series language models.
Free stops at: Chat app free status not confirmed; the fetched chat site returned an error to the bot. The API deducts from …
Pricing US price unconfirmed
Google's multimodal AI assistant, available free with higher limits through Google AI subscriptions.
Free stops at: Varying access to 3.1 Pro, Standard compute-based usage limits; refresh every 5 hours until weekly limit
Verified gemini.google.com (opens Google Gemini website in a new tab)
Free · paid from $4.99/mo US · checked Sep 30
For API tokens, DeepSeek lists deepseek-flash at $0.30 input and $1.20 output per 1M tokens at peak, half that off-peak. Gemini 3.8 Flash is listed at $0.75 input and $3.75 output through 2026-12-31, then $1.50 and $7.50 from 2027-01-01. The two prices are not for identical models or caching terms, so treat the gap as a guide. Gemini also has a free API tier and a $0 app plan; DeepSeek's chat price is unconfirmed.
Unconfirmed for DeepSeek: the chat site blocked our automated check, so its free status and plans are unverified. Gemini has a documented Free plan at $0 with a Google Account, though it caps usage and limits context to 32k tokens.
Gemini documents it: personal accounts with Keep Activity on are used for training and some chats are read by human reviewers, while temporary chats and Keep Activity off are not used. Enterprise customer data is not used to train. DeepSeek's training and retention terms were not verified, so check its policy before sharing sensitive data.
Both list 1M tokens at the top end. DeepSeek's API offers 1M context with 384K max output on both models. Gemini gives 1M tokens on Google AI Pro and Ultra, but the Free plan is 32k tokens.
Yes. DeepSeek documents https://api.deepseek.com for the OpenAI format and https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic for the Anthropic format. Gemini's profile does not list a compatible endpoint for those clients, so we mark that as not confirmed.
Only official vendor pages. No third-party benchmarks, forum threads or press were used. How we review.
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