Gemini 4 Argon Pricing vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Pricing
TL;DRGoogle opened Gemini 4 Argon to paid API users on October 13. Its Standard launch rates are $2 input, $10 output, and $0.10 cached input per million tokens through November 30; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash lists lower off-peak and peak token rates. Prices checked October 14, 2026.
By DeepSeek V4 Hub
Google expanded Gemini 4 Argon access through the paid Gemini API on October 13, 2026. It had first announced the model on September 30, when access was initially limited to trusted cyber defenders through the Fairwind Program. The October update is the wider API availability and pricing event behind this comparison.
What is Gemini 4 Argon?
Google describes gemini-4-argon as its flagship reasoning model for complex software engineering, mathematical and scientific problems, and long-running agents. Google says the API supports a one-million-token unified input-output limit. Its launch examples describe Google's own work and early users; they are not independent measurements of performance against DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.
Argon is available on the paid Gemini API. Google's Standard pricing page lists no Free-tier API rate for this model. Its introductory Standard rates are $2 per million input tokens, $10 per million output tokens, and $0.10 per million cached input tokens through November 30, 2026. Google has published $4, $20, and $0.20, respectively, starting December 1, 2026. Output pricing includes thinking tokens. The cached-input rate requires a qualifying implicit cache hit; explicit caching is not supported for Argon.
How should you compare its cost with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
Compare the same workload using uncached input, eligible cached input, and output tokens, then check how many accepted results each model produces. DeepSeek's API model ID is deepseek-flash, which its documentation identifies as DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash. Its USD prices change with the billing window: peak hours are 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, Monday through Friday, excluding Chinese public holidays. All other hours, including weekends and those holidays, are off-peak.
For one million uncached input tokens plus 200,000 output tokens, the posted rates give $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon during its introductory period, $0.27 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash off-peak, or $0.54 at peak. That is token-price arithmetic, not a same-task test. Different output lengths, cache hits, tool charges, and result quality can change the cost of completing a real task; a lower token rate alone does not establish a lower total task cost.
Official API prices per million tokens
The table uses Gemini's paid API Standard tier and DeepSeek's direct USD API rates. Prices were checked against the official pages on October 14, 2026. DeepSeek ranges below show off-peak first and peak second. Cached-input prices apply only to qualifying cache hits.
Scroll horizontally to see all prices.
| Model | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | Cached input / 1M tokens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 ArgonPaid API Standard · through Nov 30 | $2.00 | $10.00 | $0.10 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 FlashAPI ID: deepseek-flash | $0.15 off-peak $0.30 peak | $0.60 off-peak $1.20 peak | $0.003 off-peak $0.006 peak |
Gemini's introductory prices in the table end November 30, 2026. From December 1, Google's published Standard input, output, and cached-input prices are $4 / $20 / $0.20 per million tokens. Check both providers' live pricing pages before budgeting future usage.
Want to try Coding Plans for models including DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3, and Kimi K3? Visit pricing to see current availability and upcoming plans.
Sources
- Google's September 30 Gemini 4 Argon announcement — first announcement and initial limited access.