DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) by DeepSeek or Grok 4.6 (Medium) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max)
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max): 5.1% less intelligence, 250.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 104.0% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 45.1 | 42.8 | −5.1% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 5.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $444.60 | $1,557.04 | +250.2% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 3.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.22s | 33.09s | +104.0% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 104.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
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.
- Grok 4.6 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max)Grok 4.6 (Medium)Today'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-v4-1-flash-1017/grok-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash-1017/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill