DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or Qwen3.8 Max by Alibaba? 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
Qwen3.8 Max scores 0.7 points higher (40.2 vs 39.5) but costs 4.7× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $672; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 39.5, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) when 39.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 40.2 | +1.8% Qwen3.8 Max is 1.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $3,172.37 | +372.1% Qwen3.8 Max is 4.7× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.00s | 64.17s | +327.8% Qwen3.8 Max is 327.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 1.8% more intelligence, 372.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 327.8% 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.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)Qwen3.8 MaxToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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