# DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3.6 Plus

> DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.8 to 47.5 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash-vs-qwen3-6-plus
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 29

## Summary

- They share 29 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher in 7 categories and Qwen3.6 Plus in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads 50.2 to 29.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Mystery Game Puzzles: 43% for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and 12% for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper at $0.15 / $0.60 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 52.8 | 47.5 |
| Rank | 38 | 62 |
| Context | 1M | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.15 | $0.50 |
| Output $/M | $0.60 | $3 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 52.9 (#32)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1619 | 1461 |
| SciCode | 51.9% | 40.7% |
| LMArena Coding | 1506 | 1467 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,092 | 670.15 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 57.9% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 31.2 (#69)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: —

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 39.5% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 19.8% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,115 |

## Reasoning

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 50.2 (#36)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89.6% | 60.3% |
| CritPt | 14.3% | 2.9% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1483 | 1449 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 43% | 12% |
| DTBench | 89.9% | 81.9% |
| LMCA | 47% | 33.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.9 | 147.65 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 17% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 59.5% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 46.3% | — |

## Math

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 66.7 (#25)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 67.4% | 38.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 98.3% | 93.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1477 | 1450 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 26.8% | — |
| ProofBench | 54% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 26.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 8.3% |

## Knowledge

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 57.9 (#38)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 89.8% | 88.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1506 | 1454 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 44.1% |

## Multimodal

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 39.1 (#61)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: —

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1277 | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 34.2% | — |

## Multilingual

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 55.0 (#35)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1448 | 1424 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1497 | 1477 |
| LMArena French | 1452 | 1455 |
| LMArena German | 1484 | 1452 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1412 | 1389 |
| LMArena Korean | 1452 | 1379 |
| LMArena Russian | 1471 | 1434 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1459 | 1432 |

## Instruction Following

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 77.3 (#26)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1474 | 1425 |

## Long Context

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 45.2 (#47)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1475 | 1439 |
| CL-bench | — | 20.3% |

## Writing & Preference

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 65.4 (#48)
- Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1462 | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1435 | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1457 | 1438 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1540 | — |

## FAQ

### Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash better than Qwen3.6 Plus?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.8 to 47.5 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen3.6 Plus?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus lists at $0.50 and $3.

### Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Qwen3.6 Plus better for coding?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 52.9 versus 40.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1M tokens.

### How many benchmarks do DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Qwen3.6 Plus share?

29 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has 37 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Plus has 37.