DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) by DeepSeek or Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max)
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max): 52.5% less intelligence, 157.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 589.3% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 45.1 | 21.4 | −52.5% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 52.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $444.60 | $1,145.36 | +157.6% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 2.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.16s | 111.39s | +589.3% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 589.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
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.
- Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) 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)Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)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/qwen3-6-27b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash-1017/qwen3-6-27b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill