Model comparison

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3.8 Max

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 52.8 on the Noometry Index. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 34 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

DeepSeek

52.8

Rank #38 Confirmed

Qwen3.8 Max

Alibaba (Qwen)

56.8

Rank #22 Confirmed

Summary

They share 34 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3.8 Max in 9 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in agentic & tool use, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 45.4 to 31.2.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is APEX-Agents: 39.5% for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and 63.3% for Qwen3.8 Max.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper at $0.15 / $0.60 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8 Max specifications
	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
Provider	DeepSeek	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	52.8	56.8
Released	2026-09-09	2026-08-02
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	1M	1M
Max output	393K	131K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.15	$2
Output $ / M tokens	$0.60	$6
Results tracked	37	39

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 52.9 (#32), Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena WebDev	1619	1674
SciCode	51.9%	53.2%
LMArena Coding	1506	1502
DeepSWE	—	57.5%
FrontierSWE	—	17.8%
ALE-Bench	1,092	—

Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3.8 Max leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 31.2 (#69), Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
APEX-Agents	39.5%	63.3%
GDP.pdf	19.8%	23.2%
τ²-bench Banking	—	55.1%

Reasoning Qwen3.8 Max leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 50.2 (#36), Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
NYT Connections (extended)	89.6%	88.3%
CritPt	14.3%	20%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1483	1496
Mystery Game Puzzles	43%	38%
DTBench	89.9%	92%
LMCA	47%	46.2%
Epoch Capabilities Index	154.9	156.41
Chess Puzzles	—	40%
Surface Evolver Bench	46.3%	—

Math Qwen3.8 Max leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 66.7 (#25), Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	67.4%	74.7%
FrontierMath Tier 4	26.8%	46.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	98.3%	100%
ProofBench	54%	58%
LMArena Math	1477	1499

Knowledge Qwen3.8 Max leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 57.9 (#38), Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
GPQA Diamond	89.8%	92.7%
LMArena Expert	1506	1507
SimpleQA Verified	—	47.3%

Multimodal DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 39.1 (#61), Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Vision	1277	1314
Furniture Assembly	34.2%	20%

Multilingual Qwen3.8 Max leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 55.0 (#35), Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Non-English	1448	1472
LMArena Chinese	1497	1538
LMArena French	1452	1503
LMArena German	1484	1483
LMArena Japanese	1412	1467
LMArena Korean	1452	1461
LMArena Russian	1471	1481
LMArena Spanish	1459	1492

Instruction Following Too close to call

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 77.3 (#26), Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Instruction Following	1474	1479

Long Context Too close to call

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 45.2 (#47), Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Longer Query	1475	1489

Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 Max leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 65.4 (#48), Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Text	1462	1483
LMArena Creative Writing	1435	1479
LMArena Multi-Turn	1457	1489
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1540	—

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen3.8 Max?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (52.9 vs 53.5); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1M tokens.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.8 Max share?

34 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has 37 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.