Noometry

Model comparison

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3 Max

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.8 to 43.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 26 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash DeepSeek

52.8

Rank #38 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

43.7

Rank #87 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 26 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3 Max in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads 66.7 to 38.7.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 89.6% for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and 30.1% for Qwen3 Max.
  • DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper at $0.15 / $0.60 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
  • DeepSeek V4.1 Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
  • DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

DeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
ProviderDeepSeekAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index52.843.7
Released2026-09-092025-09-23
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window1M262K
Max output393K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.15$1.20
Output $ / M tokens$0.60$6
Results tracked3733

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Category by category

Coding DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 52.9 (#32), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
LMArena Coding15061456
ALE-Bench1,092370.45
LMArena WebDev1619—
SciCode51.9%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 31.2 (#69), Qwen3 Max: —

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
APEX-Agents39.5%—
GDP.pdf19.8%—
Vending-Bench 2—71.56

Reasoning DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 50.2 (#36), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
NYT Connections (extended)89.6%30.1%
LMArena Hard Prompts14831448
Mystery Game Puzzles43%5%
DTBench89.9%82.1%
LMCA47%28.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index154.9142.38
Kagi LLM Benchmark—72.5%
CritPt14.3%—
Chess Puzzles—4%
Surface Evolver Bench46.3%—

Math DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 66.7 (#25), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)67.4%18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202598.3%73.3%
LMArena Math14771446
FrontierMath Tier 426.8%—
ProofBench54%—
MATH Level 5—97.1%

Knowledge DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 57.9 (#38), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond89.8%72.6%
LMArena Expert15061455
SimpleQA Verified—48.7%

Multimodal Not comparable

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 39.1 (#61), Qwen3 Max: —

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
LMArena Vision1277—
Furniture Assembly34.2%—

Multilingual DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 55.0 (#35), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English14481429
LMArena Chinese14971478
LMArena French14521449
LMArena German14841463
LMArena Japanese14121397
LMArena Korean14521399
LMArena Russian14711428
LMArena Spanish14591462

Instruction Following DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 77.3 (#26), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following14741419

Long Context DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 45.2 (#47), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
LMArena Longer Query14751438
Fiction.LiveBench—66.7%
CL-bench—14.5%

Writing & Preference DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 65.4 (#48), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

BenchmarkDeepSeek V4.1 FlashQwen3 Max
LMArena Text14621439
LMArena Creative Writing14351402
LMArena Multi-Turn14571446
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1540—

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash better than Qwen3 Max?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.8 to 43.7 on the Noometry Index.

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

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

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

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 52.9 versus 43.0 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

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

26 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has 37 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.

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