DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) scores 8.7 points higher (24.2 vs 15.5) but costs 6.9× as much to run the benchmark ($159 vs $23.0; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when you need intelligence above 15.5, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) when 15.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 15.5 | −36.0% GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-rea… is 36.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $159.30 | $22.97 | −85.6% GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-rea… is 85.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 100.51s | 5.06s | −95.0% GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-rea… is 95.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.20 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 36.0% less intelligence, 85.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 95.0% 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, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-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)GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning)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/gpt-5-6-luna-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash-0420/gpt-5-6-luna-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill