DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) scores 4.7 points higher (44.2 vs 39.5) but costs 3.3× as much to run the benchmark ($2242 vs $672; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 39.5, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) when 39.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 44.2 | +11.9% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 11.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $2,241.91 | +233.6% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 3.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.04s | 37.86s | +151.7% Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) is 151.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 11.9% more intelligence, 233.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 151.7% 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 (Xhigh) 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)Grok 4.6 (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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