DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) by Alibaba? 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
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) scores 3.4 points higher (27.6 vs 24.2) but costs 7.8× as much to run the benchmark ($1165 vs $149; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) when you need intelligence above 24.2, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) when 24.2 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 27.6 | +14.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 14.0% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $149.48 | $1,165.00 | +679.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 7.8× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 104.63s | 57.62s | −44.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 44.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 14.0% more intelligence, 679.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.9% 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.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) 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)Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash-0420/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash-0420/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill