DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) vs Gemini 4 Argon (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) by DeepSeek or Gemini 4 Argon (High) 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 4 Argon (High) scores 18.3 points higher (52.6 vs 34.3) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($2407 vs $200; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Argon (High) 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 4 Argon (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 52.6 | +53.4% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 53.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $199.63 | $2,407.24 | +1105.9% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 12× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.91s | 65.70s | +266.8% Gemini 4 Argon (High) is 266.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.28 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Gemini 4 Argon (High) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max): 53.4% more intelligence, 1105.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 266.8% slower end-to-end.
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 4 Argon (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)Gemini 4 Argon (High)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/gemini-4-argon · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash/gemini-4-argon?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill