DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) 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
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) scores 15.3 points higher (24.2 vs 8.9) but costs 10× as much to run the benchmark ($149 vs $14.7; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when you need intelligence above 8.9, and Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) when 8.9 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 8.9 | −63.2% Gemma 4 E4B (Reasonin… is 63.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.48 | $14.68 | −90.2% Gemma 4 E4B (Reasonin… is 90.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 116.55s | 57.72s | −50.5% Gemma 4 E4B (Reasonin… is 50.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.02 / $0.10 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 63.2% less intelligence, 90.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 50.5% 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.
- Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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