DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) by DeepSeek or GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) by OpenAI? 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
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) scores 9.3 points higher (34.3 vs 25.0) but costs 4.5× as much to run the benchmark ($200 vs $44.3; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) when you need intelligence above 25.0, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) when 25.0 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) | GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 25.0 | −27.1% GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) is 27.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $199.63 | $44.32 | −77.8% GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) is 77.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.91s | 5.82s | −67.5% GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) is 67.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.28 | $0.20 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max): 27.1% less intelligence, 77.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 67.5% faster 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.
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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