DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 5.5 points higher (39.8 vs 34.3) but costs 5.5× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $200; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 34.3, and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) when 34.3 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 39.8 | +16.0% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 16.0% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $199.63 | $1,100.06 | +451.0% Gemini 3.8 Flash (Med… is 5.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.91s | Not reported | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.28 | $0.75 / $3.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Speech, Video |
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max): 16.0% more intelligence, 451.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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