Compare / DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3.8 Max
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3.8 Max
A side by side look at published price, context window and benchmark scores for these two models. Every number links to its source. A missing field means that model has not published a number for that metric.
What this means for your work
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs far less ($0.30 in, $1.20 out at peak hours vs $2 and $6) and produces text about four times faster at the settings tested. Both score 45 on the Artificial Analysis index, and Qwen3.8 Max is slightly higher on both LMArena boards. If cost and speed drive your choice, DeepSeek leads here; on quality, these two are close.
Input price
Lower is betterDeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source Vendor pricing page, as of Oct 19, 2026. deepseek-flash peak cache-miss per 1M; off-peak is $0.15; model version DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017
Qwen3.8 Max: source Vendor pricing page, as of Oct 27, 2026. international deployment, qwen3.8-max and qwen3.8-max-0902, input up to 1M tokens; other scopes list $1.65
Output price
Lower is betterDeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source Vendor pricing page, as of Oct 19, 2026. peak output per 1M; off-peak is $0.60
Qwen3.8 Max: source Vendor pricing page, as of Oct 27, 2026. international deployment per 1M, chain-of-thought plus answer; other scopes list $4.951
Context window
Higher is betterDeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source Vendor model page, as of Oct 19, 2026. context length listed as 1M
Qwen3.8 Max: source Vendor model page, as of Oct 27, 2026. Model Studio market card for Qwen3.8-Max, latest qwen3.8-max-0902, 1M context window
Output speed
Higher is betterDeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source Artificial Analysis, as of Oct 27, 2026. 1017 max; DeepSeek API
Qwen3.8 Max: source Artificial Analysis, as of Oct 27, 2026. 0902; Alibaba API
Time to first token
Lower is betterFor reasoning settings, Artificial Analysis counts thinking time before the first answer token, so long waits are expected on max effort modes.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source Artificial Analysis, as of Oct 27, 2026. 1017 max; DeepSeek API; AA FAQ TTFT
Qwen3.8 Max: source Artificial Analysis, as of Oct 27, 2026. 0902; Alibaba API; AA FAQ TTFT
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Higher is betterComposite of several evaluations run by Artificial Analysis at the setting shown.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source Artificial Analysis, as of Oct 27, 2026. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 max; AA index integer
Qwen3.8 Max: source Artificial Analysis, as of Oct 27, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max (0902); AA index integer
LMArena Text score
Higher is betterBars start at 1300, not 0, to make differences easier to see.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source LMArena Text, as of Oct 22, 2026. Reported for DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-20260910 (Max).
Qwen3.8 Max: source LMArena Text, as of Oct 22, 2026. Reported for Qwen3.8-Max.
LMArena WebDev score
Higher is betterBars start at 1300, not 0, to make differences easier to see.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: source LMArena WebDev, as of Oct 23, 2026. Reported for DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-20261017 (Max).
Qwen3.8 Max: source LMArena WebDev, as of Oct 23, 2026. Reported for Qwen3.8-Max (0902).
All metrics
| Metric | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.30as of Oct 19, 2026 | $2.00as of Oct 27, 2026 |
| Output price | $1.20as of Oct 19, 2026 | $6.00as of Oct 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M tokensas of Oct 19, 2026 | 1M tokensas of Oct 27, 2026 |
| Output speed | 170.2 tok/sas of Oct 27, 2026 | 40.8 tok/sas of Oct 27, 2026 |
| Time to first token | 1.17 sas of Oct 27, 2026 | 2.86 sas of Oct 27, 2026 |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | 45 pointsas of Oct 27, 2026 | 45 pointsas of Oct 27, 2026 |
| LMArena Text score | 1464as of Oct 22, 2026 | 1484as of Oct 22, 2026 |
| LMArena WebDev score | 1665as of Oct 23, 2026 | 1673as of Oct 23, 2026 |