The short answer
Google Gemini is the better choice for work: it wins writing, research, images and video, Google apps and privacy, and since 13 October 2026 Google AI Pro and Ultra run Gemini 4 Argon. DeepSeek, from Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., wins on price and open weights: DeepSeek-V4-Pro is free in Expert Mode and downloadable under the MIT licence. DeepSeek's privacy policy says it stores data in China, so keep it to public material.
| Google Gemini | DeepSeek | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Google, United States | Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., China |
| Free plan models | Auto, mostly Flash-Lite since 9 October 2026 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017, plus DeepSeek-V4-Pro in Expert Mode |
| Top model | Gemini 4 Argon (Google AI Pro and Ultra) | DeepSeek-V4-Pro |
| Paid plans | Google AI Plus, Pro, Ultra; Gemini Enterprise | None for the chat; pay-as-you-go API |
| Inside work apps | Gmail from Google AI Plus, Docs from Google AI Pro | No connected apps in the chat |
| Research | Deep Research on Free; Gemini Notebook for your own sources | Web search with its own search engine |
| Images and video | Images on every plan; video from Google AI Plus | Reads images; no image or video generation |
| Context window | 1 million tokens on Google AI Pro | 1 million tokens (API pricing page) |
| Your data | Personal: trains with Keep Activity on; Workspace: no training outside your domain | Stored in China under PRC law; may train unless you opt out |
| Open weights | None for Gemini | DeepSeek-V4-Pro under the MIT licence |
Google Gemini vs DeepSeek: the verdict
Pick Google Gemini for work. It wins writing, research, images and video, work inside Google apps, and privacy, because it lives where most office work already happens (Gmail, Docs and Drive) and Google Workspace accounts keep your content out of training outside your domain. Pick DeepSeek when you want the strongest model you can get for nothing on public material, when you are a developer who wants a low-cost API, or when your company wants open weights it can run on its own servers. The DeepSeek app stores what you type in China, which rules it out for most client and company work.
Here is where each one stands in November 2026. Gemini is made by Google. Since 13 October 2026, Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers get Gemini 4 Argon, Google's new flagship model, in the Gemini app. Since 9 October, free accounts use an Auto setting that sends most prompts to Flash-Lite, with harder prompts sometimes going to Flash or Pro, and Google AI Plus runs on the Flash model. DeepSeek is made by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd. Its chat is free on the web and in its apps, runs on DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 since 17 October 2026, and switches to DeepSeek-V4-Pro when you turn on Expert Mode, which has offered that model since its general release on 13 August 2026.
That creates an unusual split. On the free plans, DeepSeek hands you its biggest model while Gemini mostly answers with its smallest. On the paid side, DeepSeek has no consumer subscription at all, while Gemini's paid plans add Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini inside Gmail and Docs, video generation and a lot of storage. Compare the version you would actually use. For the full picture of each tool, read our guides to using Gemini and using DeepSeek.
Writing and email: Gemini wins
Gemini's writing advantage is where it sits. On Google AI Plus it drafts inside Gmail and Vids, and Google AI Pro adds Docs and other Google apps, so you can rewrite a reply or a section of a report without copying anything into a chat window. Since 27 April 2026 Gemini can also create files from a prompt, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, PDF, .docx and .xlsx, and since 29 October 2026 it shows them in a preview where you can type edits or highlight a passage and ask Gemini to change it. That turns a draft into a document you can send.
DeepSeek writes clear text, and DeepSeek says its October Flash update gives shorter outputs than the version before. On the free plan, Expert Mode puts a much larger model behind your draft than Gemini's Flash-Lite. But DeepSeek has no document tools and no connection to your mail or files in the chat, and most work writing contains names, numbers and client details you should not send to servers in China. For drafts with real business content, Gemini is the safer and more useful choice. If polish matters most, also read Claude vs DeepSeek, because Claude is our pick for careful editing.
Research with sources: Gemini wins
Gemini has the deeper research toolkit, and much of it is free. Deep Research is on the free plan and reads many web pages to write a longer report. Gemini Notebook, the product formerly called NotebookLM and renamed on 16 July 2026, answers only from the sources you give it, such as PDFs, Google Docs or websites, and since 23 October 2026 you can type @Gemini Notebook in an ordinary Gemini chat to create a notebook or ask what your notebooks say. Keeping web answers and source-only answers apart is a good habit for anything you will need to trace back.
DeepSeek has web search, powered by its own in-house search engine, which DeepSeek's 17 October 2026 change log describes as indexing hundreds of billions of web pages. It does not document a multi-step research report mode, and it does not explain how the chat displays sources, which makes checking claims harder. For quick public questions, DeepSeek search is fine. For a report you will put your name to, Gemini wins. Our guide to the best AI for research goes further.
Reasoning and problem solving for free: DeepSeek wins
If your budget is zero, DeepSeek gives you more model. Expert Mode switches the chat to DeepSeek-V4-Pro, the model DeepSeek publishes with 1.6 trillion parameters (49 billion active), and DeepSeek's models run in thinking mode by default in the API, working through a problem before answering. That suits maths, logic puzzles, planning and code questions where you want the reasoning laid out.
Gemini's free plan sends most prompts to Flash-Lite, Google's fastest and cheapest model. You can pick low, medium or high effort for each model, and higher effort gives more thorough answers but uses your limit faster. Free usage limits refresh every five hours until you reach a weekly limit. To reach Gemini 4 Argon you need Google AI Pro or Ultra. So for free, hard thinking on public material, DeepSeek takes this one. Once you pay for Google AI Pro, the comparison changes, because Gemini 4 Argon is Google's model for complex work.
Coding: DeepSeek for cheap API work, Gemini for an agent in the app
For developers, DeepSeek wins on cost and openness. Its API is billed per use, with off-peak prices half the peak rate since 16 August 2026, and DeepSeek documents use with Claude Code and Codex, so you can point familiar coding tools at its models. Both API models, deepseek-flash and deepseek-v4-pro, take up to 1 million tokens of context according to DeepSeek's pricing page. DeepSeek also publishes DeepSeek Harness, an open-source agent harness under the MIT licence that runs as a desktop app or a web UI, which is in public preview with core plugins and APIs still changing.
Gemini's coding route is Google Antigravity, Google's agentic coding tool, which since 13 October 2026 is built into the Gemini app for macOS (English only): you start a coding agent from the chat, approve its plan, and return to the chat while it writes and tests code. Google AI Pro includes standard Antigravity limits and Ultra raises them. For a professional who codes now and then inside a Google account, that is the easier path. For a developer paying per token with code they are allowed to send to a Chinese provider, DeepSeek wins. Sending company code to DeepSeek is a decision for your security team.
Long documents and files: a split decision
DeepSeek's API pricing page lists a 1 million token context for both of its models (it does not publish a separate limit for the free chat), and its Flash model understands images, so you can paste a long public report or ask about a screenshot. DeepSeek-V4-Pro, the Expert Mode model, does not support vision. Gemini offers a 1 million token context window on Google AI Pro, and its bigger advantage is that your files are already in Google Drive, so you can point it at the exact Doc, Sheet or email thread.
The winner depends on the material. For a free one-off read of a long public document, DeepSeek is a fair choice. For your own work files, Gemini, because it can reach them where they live and it keeps the data with Google rather than sending it to China.
Images and video: Gemini wins
This is not close. Gemini creates and edits images on every plan: free accounts use Nano Banana 2, and Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra subscribers get Nano Banana 2.1, which Google calls its best image generation and editing model. Video generation starts at Google AI Plus, and Google AI Pro includes a limited trial of Veo 3.1 Lite. DeepSeek's documented features include image understanding but no image or video generation. If you make slide visuals, social graphics or short clips, Gemini is the only one of the two that does the job.
Customising the assistant: Gemini wins, with a change coming
Gemini lets you save instructions for repeat jobs as skills, reusable sets of instructions that Gemini can build from your chats and run automatically when a prompt matches. Skills arrived on 30 September 2026 and are replacing Gems. For personal accounts aged 18 or over, Gems become read-only on 17 November 2026 and are removed on 17 December 2026, when they convert to skills automatically. Google advises downloading your Gem files before 17 December, because some file types do not carry over. Workspace business accounts follow in March 2027 and education accounts in June 2027. Gemini also connects to more than 40 apps and services through Customize in the left-hand menu.
DeepSeek's chat has no equivalent of skills or connected apps. Its customisation story is for builders: DeepSeek Harness has a Creator mode where you describe a plugin in chat and the harness builds it. That is powerful for developers and irrelevant for most office workers.
Privacy and where your data goes: Gemini wins
- DeepSeek. Its privacy policy (last updated 10 February 2026) says DeepSeek collects, processes and stores personal data in the People's Republic of China, and its Terms of Use (last updated 27 March 2026) are governed by the laws of mainland China. Inputs and outputs may be used to improve the service after de-identification unless you turn off Improve the model for everyone in the app's settings (DeepSeek does not publish the exact menu path), and the privacy policy lists a right to opt out of training, with privacy@deepseek.com as the contact. Opting out does not change where the data is stored. There is no business plan for the chat. On 19 October 2026 the US Department of Homeland Security made public an order, issued on 24 July, requiring federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek technology from their systems, as CNBC reported; it does not cover private companies.
- Gemini. On personal Google accounts, Keep Activity is on by default for users 18 or over, and with it on Google uses your activity to improve its services, including training generative AI models, and human reviewers read a subset of chats, which are kept for up to three years disconnected from your account. Turn this off at myactivity.google.com/product/gemini under Gemini Apps Activity. With Keep Activity off, future chats are not used for training unless you send feedback, but they are still kept for 72 hours. Temporary chats work the same way. Work and school accounts on Google Workspace follow the Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub: no human review and no training outside your domain without permission.
Gemini wins because it has work plans with training kept inside your organisation and DeepSeek has none. The one exception favours DeepSeek: its open weights, run on your own infrastructure, send nothing to DeepSeek at all.
Price and open weights: DeepSeek wins
DeepSeek's chat on the web and in its apps costs nothing. DeepSeek publishes no paid consumer subscription and no fixed usage limits for the chat. Gemini's free plan is generous in features (Deep Research, image creation, Gemini Live, Canvas and Gemini Notebook) but answers mostly with Flash-Lite, and the paid plans are Google AI Plus, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra, with Gemini Enterprise for businesses. Check current prices on Google's plans page. If you need cloud storage anyway, Google AI Pro bundles 5 TB, which changes the value sum.
On openness, DeepSeek is in a different category. DeepSeek-V4-Pro is on Hugging Face under the MIT licence, which lets any company download it and run it on servers it controls, and DeepSeek says the V4.1 Flash weights are on Hugging Face and ModelScope too. Google offers Gemini through its own apps and API, so your prompts always reach Google.
Same task, both tools
These comparisons describe each tool's documented features, not our own test runs.
Reply to a long client email thread
Gemini: on Google AI Plus or above, open the thread in Gmail and ask Gemini to draft the reply in place, with the context already there. DeepSeek: you would copy the thread into the chat, strip every client name and detail first, and paste the answer back. Edge: Gemini.
Work through a tricky pricing model with public numbers
DeepSeek: turn on Expert Mode and ask it to reason step by step; on the free plan you get DeepSeek-V4-Pro. Gemini: on the free plan Auto will mostly use Flash-Lite, so set a higher effort level, or use Gemini 4 Argon on Google AI Pro. Edge: DeepSeek for free, Gemini if you already pay for Google AI Pro.
Build a short research brief with sources
Gemini: run Deep Research for the web, then add the best sources to a Gemini Notebook so later questions are answered only from them. DeepSeek: ask with web search on, then open and check each source yourself, because DeepSeek does not document how it shows them. Edge: Gemini.
Who should pick Gemini, and who should pick DeepSeek
Pick Gemini if your work runs on Gmail, Docs, Drive and Calendar, you research from your own documents, you make images or video, or your employer already pays for Google Workspace (ask your admin whether Gemini is switched on before buying anything). Google AI Pro is the plan that adds Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini in Docs. If you rely on Gems, move them to skills before 17 December 2026.
Pick DeepSeek if you want a strong reasoning model for free on public material, you are a developer who wants a low-cost API that works with Claude Code and Codex, or your organisation wants open weights under the MIT licence to self-host. Do not use the DeepSeek app for confidential, client or regulated work, and check your employer's policy first.
Not sure? Use Gemini for anything with your company's name on it and DeepSeek for learning and public problem solving. For other options see ChatGPT vs DeepSeek, ChatGPT vs Gemini, the best Gemini alternatives and our comparison tool, or practise with the free Gemini lessons at /learn?tool=gemini.
Prompts to copy
Draft a reply from a thread
Read this email thread: [paste, or in Gmail use the open thread]. Draft a reply that answers every open question, confirms [decision or date], and proposes one next step. Keep it under 150 words, friendly and direct, and list anything in the thread you think I have missed.
You get: A ready-to-send reply plus a short list of loose ends (best in Gemini inside Gmail; in DeepSeek remove names first)
Reason through a problem step by step
Here is the problem: [describe it, using public or made-up numbers]. Work through it step by step, state every assumption you make, show the calculation at each step, and finish with the answer, how confident you are on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one assumption that would change the answer most.
You get: A worked answer with visible assumptions you can check (DeepSeek with Expert Mode on, or Gemini on high effort)
Build a source-only brief
Using only the sources I have added: [list or attach them], write a one-page brief on [topic] for [audience]. Give five key points, each with the source it comes from, then list two questions the sources do not answer. Do not use anything outside these sources.
You get: A brief you can trace back to each source (best in Gemini Notebook)