DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) 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
GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) scores 10.4 points higher (34.6 vs 24.2) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($179 vs $159; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max).
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 34.6 | +43.0% GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) is 43.0% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $159.30 | $179.33 | +12.6% GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) is 12.6% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 100.51s | 45.80s | −54.4% GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) is 54.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.20 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 43.0% more intelligence, 12.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 54.4% 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 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) scores 41.30 for $175.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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