DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
DeepSeek R1 vs Gemini 3.1 Pro preview: DeepSeek R1 is cheaper by 55% on average. DeepSeek R1 from Azure AI Foundry (128,000-token context, reasoning) vs. Gemini 3.1 Pro preview from Google Vertex AI (1,048,576-token context, reasoning, tool calls). Use Agent Command Center to A/B both in shadow mode and pick the winner per workload.
Side-by-side cost
Live workload comparison
Same workload run through both models. The cheaper one is highlighted.
3,000
01,048,576
400
065,536
5,000
01,000,000
At this workload, DeepSeek R1 is 42% cheaper than Gemini 3.1 Pro preview — a savings of $699/month ($8,382/year).
Production recipe — Agent Command Center
strategy: cost-optimized
primary:
model: deepseek-r1
provider: azure-ai-foundry
fallback:
model: gemini-3-1-pro-preview
provider: vertex-ai
shadow: { sample_rate: 0.05 } # mirror 5% of traffic to compare quality live| DeepSeek R1 | Gemini 3.1 Pro preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $1.35/M | $2.00/M |
| Output price | $5.40/M | $12.00/M |
| Context window | 128,000 | 1,048,576 |
| Max output | 8,192 | 65,536 |
| Function calling | — | ✓ |
| Vision | — | ✓ |
| Audio input | — | ✓ |
| Reasoning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Prompt caching | — | ✓ |
| Structured output | — | ✓ |
| Pricing verified | May 12, 2026 | May 12, 2026 |
Benchmark comparison
Side-by-side public benchmark scores. Greener bar = winner.
Chatbot Arena ELOgeneral
DeepSeek R1
1,361
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
1,492
GPQA Diamondreasoning⚠ different settings
DeepSeek R1
71.5%
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
94.3%
SWE-bench Verifiedagent⚠ different settings
DeepSeek R1
49.2%
Gemini 3.1 Pro preview
80.6%