Model comparison

DeepSeek-R1 vs Gemma 3 4B

DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 18× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-R1 DeepSeek

42.3

Rank #115 Confirmed

Gemma 3 4B Google

28.1

Rank #326 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-R1 scores higher in 9 categories and Gemma 3 4B in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where DeepSeek-R1 leads 44.5 to 11.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 66.4% for DeepSeek-R1 and 7.5% for Gemma 3 4B.
  • Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $2.15 for DeepSeek-R1.
  • DeepSeek-R1 accepts more context: 164K tokens versus 131K.
  • Gemma 3 4B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

DeepSeek-R1 and Gemma 3 4B specifications
DeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
ProviderDeepSeekGoogle
Noometry Index42.328.1
Released2025-01-202025-03-12
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window164K131K
Max output64K4K
Input $ / M tokens$0.50$0.04
Output $ / M tokens$2.15$0.08
Results tracked5222

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 46.3 (#68), Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Coding14271230
Aider Polyglot71.4%—
SciCode35.7%—
WeirdML41.6%—
LiveBench Coding66.7%—
ALE-Bench804.12—
AlgoTune1.7—

Agentic & Tool Use DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 30.7 (#75), Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—19.6%
DeepResearch Bench35.1%—
BALROG34.9%—
METR Time Horizons53.8%—

Reasoning DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 18.6 (#278), Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
Kagi LLM Benchmark69.4%25.2%
LMArena Hard Prompts14161253
Epoch Capabilities Index141.29116.02
ARC-AGI-21.3%—
SimpleBench40.8%—
ARC-AGI-121.2%—
CritPt1.1%—
Chess Puzzles—0%
LiveBench Reasoning83.2%—
DTBench—50.9%
LiveBench Data Analysis69.8%—
LMCA—2.8%
ForecastBench60—
LiveBench71.6%—

Math DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 43.8 (#79), Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202566.4%7.5%
LMArena Math14001239
Omni-MATH42.4%—
LiveBench Math80.7%—
MATH Level 596.6%—

Knowledge DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 44.5 (#87), Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
GPQA Diamond76.3%23.2%
Vectara Hallucination Rate11.3%6.4%
LMArena Expert13941223
MMLU-Pro79.3%—
Confabulations12.7%—
GPQA (HELM)66.6%—

Multilingual DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 52.4 (#85), Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Non-English14121273
LMArena German14041281
LMArena Russian14231294
LMArena Chinese1442—
LMArena French1417—
LMArena Japanese1391—
LMArena Korean1360—
LMArena Spanish1411—

Instruction Following DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 72.0 (#143), Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Instruction Following13821239
LiveBench Instruction Following80.5%—
IFEval78.4%—

Long Context DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 45.4 (#36), Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Longer Query13911273
Fiction.LiveBench75%—

Writing & Preference DeepSeek-R1 leads

DeepSeek-R1: 61.4 (#88), Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkDeepSeek-R1Gemma 3 4B
LMArena Text14281291
LMArena Creative Writing14051271
EQ-Bench Creative Writing15001068
LMArena Multi-Turn14051255
Short-Story Creative Writing83%—
WildBench82.8%—
LiveBench Language48.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-R1 better than Gemma 3 4B?

DeepSeek-R1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 18× less per token, which makes it the better buy when DeepSeek-R1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-R1 or Gemma 3 4B?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; DeepSeek-R1 lists at $0.50 and $2.15.

Is DeepSeek-R1 or Gemma 3 4B better for coding?

DeepSeek-R1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 46.3 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek-R1 does, with 164K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-R1 and Gemma 3 4B share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-R1 has 52 scored results on Noometry and Gemma 3 4B has 22.

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