DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) by Alibaba? 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
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) scores 26.8 points higher (39.5 vs 12.7) but costs 2.3× as much to run the benchmark ($526 vs $234; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning).
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 12.7 | −67.8% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 67.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $525.65 | $233.56 | −55.6% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 55.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.08s | 22.73s | +50.7% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 50.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $0.23 / $2.30 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 67.8% less intelligence, 55.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 50.7% 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 (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill