DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Gemini 4 Argon (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 4 Argon (High) by Google? 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
Gemini 4 Argon (High) scores 28.4 points higher (52.6 vs 24.2) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($2407 vs $149; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Argon (High) 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 4 Argon (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 52.6 | +117.4% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 2.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.48 | $2,407.24 | +1510.4% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 16× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 100.76s | 64.86s | −35.6% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 35.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Gemini 4 Argon (High) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 117.4% more intelligence, 1510.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 35.6% faster end-to-end.
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 4 Argon (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)Gemini 4 Argon (High)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-flash-0420/gemini-4-argon · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash-0420/gemini-4-argon?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill