DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) by Google? 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
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) scores 1.4 points higher (40.9 vs 39.5) but costs 2.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1623 vs $672; both premium class). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max).
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 40.9 | +3.5% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 3.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $1,622.73 | +141.5% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 2.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.98s | 31.19s | +108.2% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Hig… is 108.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 3.5% more intelligence, 141.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 108.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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