DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) vs Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-03.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) scores 25.2 points higher (57.7 vs 32.5) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($5903 vs $521; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) 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 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 32.5 | 57.7 | +77.5% Gemini 4 Carbon (Medi… is 77.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $520.63 | $5,903.03 | +1033.8% Gemini 4 Carbon (Medi… is 11× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.58s | 34.07s | +118.7% Gemini 4 Carbon (Medi… is 118.7% 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 (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max): 77.5% more intelligence, 1033.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 118.7% 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 (Medium) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max)Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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