DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 249.1% more intelligence, 21.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 155.4% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Qwen3.8-Flash-Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 39.8 | +249.1% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 3.5× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $362.72 | −21.3% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 21.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 19.76s | 50.47s | +155.4% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 155.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $0.15 / $0.47 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Qwen3.8-Flash-NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/qwen3-8-flash-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/qwen3-8-flash-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill