DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs GPT-6 Astra (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or GPT-6 Astra (Medium) 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
GPT-6 Astra (Medium) scores 10.1 points higher (49.6 vs 39.5) but costs 3.6× as much to run the benchmark ($2434 vs $672; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Medium) when you need intelligence above 39.5, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) when 39.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | GPT-6 Astra (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 49.6 | +25.6% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 25.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $2,434.12 | +262.2% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 3.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.03s | 13.89s | −7.6% GPT-6 Astra (Medium) is 7.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $10.0 / $50.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-6 Astra (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 25.6% more intelligence, 262.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 7.6% faster 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-6 Astra (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)GPT-6 Astra (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/gpt-6-astra-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash/gpt-6-astra-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill