DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) vs Gemini 4 Carbon (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 4 Carbon (High) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-29.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Carbon (High) scores 26.9 points higher (59.4 vs 32.5) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($8240 vs $521; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Carbon (High) when you need intelligence above 32.5, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) when 32.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) | Gemini 4 Carbon (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 32.5 | 59.4 | +82.8% Gemini 4 Carbon (High) is 82.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $520.63 | $8,239.69 | +1482.6% Gemini 4 Carbon (High) is 16× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.19s | 102.49s | +574.7% Gemini 4 Carbon (High) is 574.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $4.00 / $20.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 4 Carbon (High) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max): 82.8% more intelligence, 1482.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 574.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 46.10 for $389.
- Gemini 4 Carbon (High) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max)Gemini 4 Carbon (High)Today'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-v4-1-flash-1017/gemini-4-carbon · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash-1017/gemini-4-carbon?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill