DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google? 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
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 15.6 points higher (39.8 vs 24.2) but costs 7.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $149; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 24.2, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when 24.2 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 39.8 | +64.5% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 64.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.48 | $1,100.06 | +635.9% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 7.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 116.79s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 64.5% more intelligence, 635.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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