DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) by DeepSeek or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next scores 15.6 points higher (39.8 vs 24.2) but costs 2.3× as much to run the benchmark ($363 vs $159; both mid-range class). Pick Qwen3.8-Flash-Next when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max).
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) | Qwen3.8-Flash-Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.2 | 39.8 | +64.5% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 64.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $159.30 | $362.72 | +127.7% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 2.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 99.17s | 49.52s | −50.1% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 50.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.15 / $0.47 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max): 64.5% more intelligence, 127.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 50.1% 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.
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max)Qwen3.8-Flash-NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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