DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) by DeepSeek or Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max)
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max): 21.3% less intelligence, 665.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 264.0% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 27.0 | −21.3% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 21.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $199.63 | $1,528.20 | +665.5% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 7.7× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 17.91s | 65.20s | +264.0% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 264.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.28 | $0.95 / $4.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
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.
- Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) 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)Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)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/kimi-k2-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash/kimi-k2-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill