DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Gemini 4 Argon
Updated October 21, 2026. 31 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 for coding: it scores 83.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 80.5 for Gemini 4 Argon.
Pick Gemini 4 Argon when what matters is LMArena WebDev or Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 31
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 only
- 1
- Gemini 4 Argon only
- 61
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 scores 83.3 against 80.5.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 4 Argon
Gemini 4 Argon leads, 52.6 against 39.5.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Gemini 4 Argon
Gemini 4 Argon leads, 1315 against 1312.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
Gemini 4 Argon
Gemini 4 Argon leads, 69.2% against 61.3%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.0004, Gemini 4 Argon $0.0070 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 83.3 from 2 benchmarks, Gemini 4 Argon 80.5 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 13.1 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI): DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 31.8% against Gemini 4 Argon 57.6%, 25.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.60 against Gemini 4 Argon $10.00 per million output tokens, 16.7x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 1.05M tokens.
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 V4.1 Flash 1017 | Bars | Gemini 4 Argon | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 7 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 8 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| Web design | 2 | 5 | ||
| General | 1 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 6 | 25 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index27
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 96.0% | 89.7% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1664 | 1678 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 31.8% | 57.6% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 87.7% | 91.9% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 44.2% | 68.2% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.5% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 100.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 57.7% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 56.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 21.2% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 77.9% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SciCode | 55.9% | 61.8% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 47.5% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 55.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1622.0 | 2100.1 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1546 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1556 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1667 | 1692 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1687 | 1643 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 39.5 | 52.6 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 166.4 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index18
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1238 | 1151 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LiveBench research | 79.5% | 83.1% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LiveBench browser | 76.0% | 92.0% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LiveBench long agentic | 50.9% | 69.9% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 44.3% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 57.0% | 65.4% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 44.4% | 44.6% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 45.2% | 54.8% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 14.2% | 27.1% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 61.8% | 75.2% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 76.3% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 44.3% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Vals Science Index | Not measured | 55.4% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.5% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| CUA-bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 4.8% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Robo-bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.8% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 82.4% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | Not measured | $13,718 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 89.1% | 95.1% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 45.5% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.3% | 57.1% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 96.4% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 98.5% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 91.3% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 59.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| EBR-bench | Not measured | 64.8% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1546 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1550 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1548 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 100.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 86.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 78.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 99.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1536 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1557 | Only Gemini 4 Argon 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 V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.8% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 76.0% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1548 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1555 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1548 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1525 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index25
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1312 | 1315 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1305 | 1333 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1365 | 1377 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1330 | 1334 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1368 | 1389 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1335 | 1328 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1244 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| LiveBench design | 83.4% | 73.7% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 61.3% | 69.2% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LiveBench data analysis | 79.5% | 85.2% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.8% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.6% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.4% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.7% | 79.7% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| DTBench | Not measured | 97.6% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 63.7% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 72.5% | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1532 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1534 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1527 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1538 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1522 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1611 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1503 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1534 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1556 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1547 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1529 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1527 | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | 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 V4.1 Flash 1017 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 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 V4.1 Flash 1017 | Google Gemini 4 Argon |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 17, 2026 | October 13, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $10.00 |
| Coding index | 83.3 | 80.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 better than Gemini 4 Argon for coding?
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 for coding: it scores 83.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 80.5 for Gemini 4 Argon. Pick Gemini 4 Argon when what matters is LMArena WebDev or Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Gemini 4 Argon?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 and $10.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Gemini 4 Argon?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Gemini 4 Argon comparison based on?
31 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Gemini 4 Argon's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.