DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Muse Spark 1.2
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 leads Muse Spark 1.2 on coding, 70.3 to 55.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs 7.1x less per output token ($0.60 vs $4.25 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 30 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Muse Spark 1.2: which to pick
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 for coding: it scores 70.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 55.7 for Muse Spark 1.2, though on 4 benchmarks against 5.
Pick Muse Spark 1.2 for work measured by SciCode or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 30
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 only
- 9
- Muse Spark 1.2 only
- 67
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
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, six public coding benchmarks
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 scores 70.3 against 55.7.
4 and 5 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Muse Spark 1.2
Muse Spark 1.2 leads, 39.6 against 39.5.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Muse Spark 1.2 has a AA Agentic Index result, 43.2.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Muse Spark 1.2 has a MMLU Pro result, 88.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Muse Spark 1.2
Muse Spark 1.2 leads, 1312 against 1311.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 has a Vals Index result, 61.3%.
Directional only
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, Muse Spark 1.2 $0.0034 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Muse Spark 1.2 has the number, $0.64.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 70.3 from 4 benchmarks, Muse Spark 1.2 55.7 from 5 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Knowledge, 17.8 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- LiveBench browser: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 76.0% against Muse Spark 1.2 36.0%, 40.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.60 against Muse Spark 1.2 $4.25 per million output tokens, 7.1x 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 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 7 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 6 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 5 | 3 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 21 | 9 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index71
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 96.0% | 78.2% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1664 | 1534 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 72.2 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 86.6% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 31.8% | 6.1% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 87.7% | 79.1% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 44.2% | 29.9% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 21.8% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.7% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.0% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.5% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SciCode | 55.9% | 57.4% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 12.0% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 60.3% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1622.0 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1505 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1505 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1667 | 1526 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1687 | 1543 | 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 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 39.5 | 39.6 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 155.1 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index61
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 43.2 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1221 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | Not measured | 1210 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1181 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1222 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | Not measured | 1179 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | Not measured | 1085 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1172 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1245 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| LiveBench research | 79.5% | 67.7% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LiveBench browser | 76.0% | 36.0% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LiveBench long agentic | 50.9% | 21.3% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 57.0% | 60.6% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 44.4% | 32.8% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 45.2% | 43.8% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 14.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 61.8% | 57.0% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.8% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 45.4% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 89.1% | 90.0% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 86.1% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 90.4% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.3% | 45.5% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 93.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 74.5% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 46.0% | 27.0% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Mystery game puzzles | 49.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1489 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1475 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1487 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1317 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 99.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 71.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 46.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 43.0% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1484 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1480 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.3% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.9% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 80.4% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.4% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 49.4% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 42.5% | 60.3% | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1500 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1496 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1517 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1484 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index53
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1311 | 1312 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1303 | 1298 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1357 | 1301 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1330 | 1334 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1358 | 1301 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1332 | 1312 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1284 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1242 | 1284 | Muse Spark 1.2 |
| LiveBench design | 83.4% | 67.1% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 61.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 79.5% | 76.5% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.5% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.7% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 90.1% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 69.8% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.7% | 79.0% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| DTBench | Not measured | 94.7% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 48.4% | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1482 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1462 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1436 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1304 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1483 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1476 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1509 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1462 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1495 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1484 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1483 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1502 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1473 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1453 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1443 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1291 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1313 | Only Muse Spark 1.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Muse Spark 1.2 | 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 | Meta Muse Spark 1.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Meta |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 17, 2026 | August 5, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $1.25 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $4.25 |
| Coding index | 70.3 | 55.7 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 5 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.64 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 better than Muse Spark 1.2 for coding?
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 for coding: it scores 70.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 55.7 for Muse Spark 1.2, though on 4 benchmarks against 5. Pick Muse Spark 1.2 for work measured by SciCode or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Muse Spark 1.2?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Muse Spark 1.2 costs $1.25 and $4.25. Cost per solved task is known for Muse Spark 1.2 only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Muse Spark 1.2?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Muse Spark 1.2 comparison based on?
30 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Muse Spark 1.2's on 5. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.