DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) 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 (Medium) scores 0.3 points higher (39.8 vs 39.5) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $672; both premium class). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max).
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 39.8 | +0.8% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 0.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $1,100.06 | +63.7% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 63.7% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.00s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| 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 (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 0.8% more intelligence, 63.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
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 (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 (Max)Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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