DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) 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.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (Medium) scores 18.1 points higher (42.8 vs 24.7) but costs 6.5× as much to run the benchmark ($1557 vs $239; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 24.7, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) when 24.7 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.7 | 42.8 | +73.3% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 73.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $238.91 | $1,557.04 | +551.7% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 6.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 2.74s | 33.09s | +1107.7% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 1107.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning): 73.3% more intelligence, 551.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1107.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- 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 (Non-reasoning)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-non-reasoning/grok-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash-non-reasoning/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill