DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 0324 by DeepSeek or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Solar Mini 4 scores 14.4 points higher (24.1 vs 9.7) but costs 25× as much to run the benchmark ($502 vs $19.9; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Solar Mini 4 when you need intelligence above 9.7, and DeepSeek V3 0324 when 9.7 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.7 | 24.1 | +148.5% Solar Mini 4 is 2.5× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $19.87 | $502.02 | +2426.5% Solar Mini 4 is 25× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.96s | 27.46s | +453.6% Solar Mini 4 is 453.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.24 / $0.90 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs DeepSeek V3 0324: 148.5% more intelligence, 2426.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 453.6% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 0324 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
DeepSeek V3 0324Solar Mini 4Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3-0324/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3-0324/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill