Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) | Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.14 | $0.1 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0.28 | $0.3 |
Verdict. DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) wins the overall benchmark matchup 7–0 across 7 overlapping categories, but raw benchmark score is only one input to the decision.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 0.9× the per-million-token cost, DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) is strongest on GPQA Diamond (89%), IFBench (79%), Coding Index (56.2). Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) leads on GPQA Diamond (75%), IFBench (74%), SciCode (38%).
Speed. On throughput, DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) generates tokens at 111 tok/s versus 26 tok/s — about 77% faster. On time-to-first-token, DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) responds in 922ms vs 1657ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. DeepSeek and Google sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: DeepSeek tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Google often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) costs $8.40 ($101/year); Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) costs $7.50 ($90/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) ≈ $1.26/run, Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) ≈ $1.10/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) ≈ $56/run, Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) ≈ $50/run. Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.
Recommendation. If you want one safe default, take DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) — it dominates the benchmark table and the latency profile is 4.3× faster. Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) only makes sense when you specifically need its pricing tier, an existing contract, or a feature difference that is not measured by the benchmarks above.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.15/M tokens vs $0.17/M for DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort).
DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) generates tokens faster at 111 tok/s vs 26 tok/s. DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) also has lower time-to-first-token (0.92s vs 1.66s).
Choose based on your priorities: Gemma 4 12B (Reasoning) for lower cost, DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) for stronger benchmark performance, and DeepSeek V4 Flash (Reasoning, Max Effort) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.