DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs GPT-5 mini (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI? 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
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) scores 22.7 points higher (39.5 vs 16.8) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($672 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | GPT-5 mini (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 16.8 | −57.5% GPT-5 mini (High) is 57.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $188.66 | −71.9% GPT-5 mini (High) is 71.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.00s | 58.74s | +291.6% GPT-5 mini (High) is 291.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $0.25 / $2.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5 mini (High) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 57.5% less intelligence, 71.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 291.6% 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.
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)GPT-5 mini (High)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/gpt-5-mini · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash/gpt-5-mini?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill