# DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Sonar

> DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/deepseek-v4-1-flash-vs-sonar
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in math, where DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads 66.7 to 33.7.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper at $0.15 / $0.60 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $1 for Sonar.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 52.8 | 38.5 |
| Rank | 38 | 187 |
| Context | 1M | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.15 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $0.60 | $1 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 52.9 (#32)
- Sonar: 35.7 (#221)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1619 | — |
| SciCode | 51.9% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1506 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,092 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 31.2 (#69)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 39.5% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 19.8% | — |

## Reasoning

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 50.2 (#36)
- Sonar: 21.1 (#227)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 89.6% | — |
| CritPt | 14.3% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1483 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 43% | — |
| DTBench | 89.9% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LMCA | 47% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 46.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.9 | — |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |

## Math

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 66.7 (#25)
- Sonar: 33.7 (#200)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 67.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 26.8% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 98.3% | — |
| ProofBench | 54% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1477 | — |

## Knowledge

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 57.9 (#38)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 89.8% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1506 | — |

## Multimodal

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 39.1 (#61)
- Sonar: —

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

## Multilingual

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 55.0 (#35)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1448 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1497 | — |
| LMArena French | 1452 | — |
| LMArena German | 1484 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1412 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1452 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1471 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1459 | — |

## Instruction Following

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 77.3 (#26)
- Sonar: 71.4 (#150)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1474 | — |

## Long Context

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 45.2 (#47)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1475 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 65.4 (#48)
- Sonar: 52.6 (#167)

| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1462 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1435 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1540 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1457 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |

## FAQ

### Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash better than Sonar?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 52.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Sonar?

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

### Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Sonar better for coding?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 52.9 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash does, with 1M tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Sonar share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has 37 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.