DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) 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 3.3 points higher (42.8 vs 39.5) but costs 2.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1557 vs $672; both premium class). Pick Grok 4.6 (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max).
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 42.8 | +8.4% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 8.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $1,557.04 | +131.7% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 2.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.00s | 33.02s | +120.1% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 120.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 8.4% more intelligence, 131.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 120.1% 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.
- 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 (Max)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/grok-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill