DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) vs gpt-oss-20b (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) by DeepSeek or gpt-oss-20b (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) scores 36.1 points higher (45.1 vs 9.0) but costs 15× as much to run the benchmark ($445 vs $28.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) when you need intelligence above 9.0, and gpt-oss-20b (High) when 9.0 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) | gpt-oss-20b (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 45.1 | 9.0 | −80.0% gpt-oss-20b (High) is 80.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $444.60 | $28.81 | −93.5% gpt-oss-20b (High) is 93.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.22s | 15.23s | −6.1% gpt-oss-20b (High) is 6.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.05 / $0.22 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
gpt-oss-20b (High) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max): 80.0% less intelligence, 93.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 6.1% faster 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 47.80 for $361.
- gpt-oss-20b (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max)gpt-oss-20b (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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