The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Gemini 3.8 Flash

Gemini 3.8 Flash leads the LLM Stats Score 51.3 to 1.5.

DeepSeek · Google · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Gemini 3.8 Flash leads the overall LLM Stats Score 51.3 to 1.5, ranking #14 overall.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose DeepSeek VL2 Small

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash

  • overall performance matters — it scores 51.3 and ranks #14 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek VL2 Small
DeepSeek
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Google
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
1.5
#308
51.3
#14
Reasoning
-3.5
#325
47.2
#23
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.75 / M
Output price
— / M
$3.75 / M
Context window
—
1,048,576

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
DeepSeek VL2 Small
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Vision
1.1#173
34.0#12
Multimodal
3.8#137
35.0#11
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

14 reported for DeepSeek VL2 Small · 13 for Gemini 3.8 Flash

No common benchmarks found

DeepSeek VL2 Small and Gemini 3.8 Flashdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Gemini 3.8 Flash specifies input context (1,048,576 tokens). Only Gemini 3.8 Flash specifies output context (65,536 tokens).

DeepSeek
DeepSeek VL2 Small
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Google
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Thu Sep 03 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both DeepSeek VL2 Small and Gemini 3.8 Flash support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Gemini 3.8 Flash

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek VL2 Small is licensed under deepseek, while Gemini 3.8 Flash uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

deepseek

Open weights

Gemini 3.8 Flash

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek VL2 Small was released on 2024-12-13, while Gemini 3.8 Flash was released on 2026-09-02.

Gemini 3.8 Flash is 21 months newer than DeepSeek VL2 Small.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

Dec 13, 2024

1.7 years ago

Gemini 3.8 Flash

Sep 2, 2026

0 days ago

1.7yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Gemini 3.8 Flash has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-03-31, while DeepSeek VL2 Small's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Gemini 3.8 Flash's training data extends to 2026-03-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek VL2 Small's cutoff date.

DeepSeek VL2 Small

—

Gemini 3.8 Flash

Mar 2026

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek VL2 Small and Gemini 3.8 Flash side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek VL2 Small
✓ Preferred
Gemini 3.8 Flash
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek VL2 Small vs Gemini 3.8 Flash.

Which is better, DeepSeek VL2 Small or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 3.8 Flash leads the LLM Stats Score 51.3 to 1.5. DeepSeek VL2 Small is made by DeepSeek and Gemini 3.8 Flash is made by Google. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does DeepSeek VL2 Small compare to Gemini 3.8 Flash in benchmarks?

DeepSeek VL2 Small scores DocVQA: 92.3%, ChartQA: 84.5%, OCRBench: 83.4%, TextVQA: 83.4%, MMBench: 80.3%. Gemini 3.8 Flash scores Terminal-Bench 2.1: 89.4%, LVBench: 87.1%, CharXiv-R: 86.2%, LABBench2: 86.2%, DeepSWE 1.1: 73.7%.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek VL2 Small and Gemini 3.8 Flash?

DeepSeek VL2 Small supports an unknown number of tokens and Gemini 3.8 Flash supports 1.0M tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek VL2 Small and Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (1.5 vs 51.3), licensing (deepseek vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek VL2 Small and Gemini 3.8 Flash?

DeepSeek VL2 Small is developed by DeepSeek and Gemini 3.8 Flash is developed by Google.

Related comparisons