DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) by DeepSeek or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) scores 30.3 points higher (39.5 vs 9.2) but costs 1.7× as much to run the benchmark ($672 vs $405; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 9.2 | −76.7% Qwen3 Coder Next is 76.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $671.96 | $405.10 | −39.7% Qwen3 Coder Next is 39.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.92s | 6.44s | −56.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 56.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.29 / $1.20 | $0.31 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max): 76.7% less intelligence, 39.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 56.8% 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.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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