DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi? 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
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) scores 2.8 points higher (27.0 vs 24.2) but costs 10× as much to run the benchmark ($1528 vs $149; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 24.2, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when 24.2 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 27.0 | +11.6% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 11.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.48 | $1,528.20 | +922.3% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 10× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 100.76s | 54.37s | −46.0% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 46.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.95 / $4.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 11.6% more intelligence, 922.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 46.0% 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, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) 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)Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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