DeepSeek V3 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Updated October 21, 2026. 11 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
vs boards won of 11 shared
Decision reading
DeepSeek V3 scores 70.2 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 77.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, but no coding benchmark measured both, so the gap is directional, not a ranking.
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash when output tokens cost 2.0x less, or when the context window is larger, 1.05M against 164K tokens.
Model ADeepSeek V3DeepSeek70.2/1001 independent benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BDeepSeek V4.1 FlashDeepSeek77.2/1002 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 11
- DeepSeek V3 only
- 2
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash only
- 90
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, four public coding benchmarks
No call
70.2 against 77.2, from different benchmarks with none in common.
Directional only
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has a AA Intelligence Index result, 24.7.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash leads, 1309 against 1120.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash takes 1.05M tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek V3 $0.0008, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash $0.0003 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3 70.2 from 1 benchmark, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 77.2 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Math, 49.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- OTIS Mock AIME: DeepSeek V3 48.9% against DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 98.3%, 49.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3 $1.0287 against DeepSeek V4.1 Flash $0.525 per million output tokens, 2.0x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3 takes 164K tokens, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1.05M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | DeepSeek V3 | Bars | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reasoning | 0 | 1 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 7 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 11 |
CodingDirectional onlyFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index22 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 70.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| SWE-bench Lite | 30.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 90.2% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1618 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 19.7% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 84.7% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 45.6% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.3% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 74.5% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 46.5% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 16.4% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.8% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 73.7% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 51.9% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 43.9% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 1092.3 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1502 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1496 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1628 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1612 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1606 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 24.7 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 155.9 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 86.8% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 84.0% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 40.1% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.8% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.5% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.6% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.4% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 57.2% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.8% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 29.6% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 39.5% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 86.7% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 21.2% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 39.2% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 71.2% | 89.8% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 94.5% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 72.9% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 48.0% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 43.0% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1483 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1501 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1488 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1297 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1307 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 48.9% | 98.3% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 67.4% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 26.8% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 54.0% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1478 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1485 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.3% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.2% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 42.9% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1469 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1484 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1443 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1461 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index07
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1120 | 1309 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1093 | 1314 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1054 | 1331 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1089 | 1290 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1087 | 1356 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1108 | 1320 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Design Arena: SVG | 976 | 1243 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1265 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 79.2% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 79.3% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.3% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.9% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.5% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 84.0% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| DTBench | 62.7% | 89.9% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| LMCA | 15.2% | 47.0% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Surface Evolver Bench | Not measured | 46.3% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 34.2% | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1464 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1473 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1437 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1278 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1473 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1449 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1501 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1470 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1432 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1436 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1465 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1459 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1467 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1457 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1461 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1473 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1450 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1445 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1288 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1327 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1282 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1260 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1275 | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3$0.0008Fits in one request
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash$0.0003Fits in one request
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3$0.016Fits in one request
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash$0.0040Fits in one request
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3$0.062Exceeds the context window
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash$0.015Fits in one request
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | DeepSeek |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | December 26, 2024 | September 10, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.2574 | $0.049 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.0287 | $0.525 |
| Coding index | 70.2 | 77.2 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3 better than DeepSeek V4.1 Flash for coding?
DeepSeek V3 scores 70.2 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 77.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, but no coding benchmark measured both, so the gap is directional, not a ranking. Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash when output tokens cost 2.0x less, or when the context window is larger, 1.05M against 164K tokens.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
DeepSeek V3 costs $0.2574 per million input tokens and $1.0287 per million output tokens; DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.049 and $0.525. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3 or DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, with 1.05M tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash comparison based on?
11 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. DeepSeek V3's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.