DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Updated October 21, 2026. 29 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 63.5 for Qwen3.8 Max (0902).
Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when what matters is LMArena WebDev or Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 29
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 only
- 3
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only
- 84
- 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 63.5.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 45.4 against 39.5.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a AA Agentic Index result, 56.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a GPQA Diamond result, 93.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a MMLU Pro result, 88.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 leads, 1312 against 1275.
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
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.0004, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $0.0050 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has the number, $1.32.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 83.3 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 63.5 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 16.4 points apart on average over 8 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Design Arena: spreadsheets: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 1238 against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 868, 46.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.60 against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $6.00 per million output tokens, 10.0x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 takes 1.05M tokens, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 1M.
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 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 5 | 3 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 7 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 7 | 1 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 23 | 6 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index53
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 96.0% | 60.3% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1664 | 1674 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 76.2 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 31.8% | 34.3% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 87.7% | 64.7% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 44.2% | 24.0% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SciCode | 55.9% | 53.2% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 17.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1622.0 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1502 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1498 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1667 | 1692 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1687 | 1649 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1637 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 39.5 | 45.4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 157.4 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index71
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 56.0 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1301 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | Not measured | 1305 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1223 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1207 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | Not measured | 1234 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1257 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1238 | 868 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LiveBench research | 79.5% | 69.9% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LiveBench browser | 76.0% | 32.0% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LiveBench long agentic | 50.9% | 42.3% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 57.0% | 50.6% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 44.4% | 32.1% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 45.2% | 47.6% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| 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% | 60.1% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 63.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Search | Not measured | 1261 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 93.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 89.1% | 88.2% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 23.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 92.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.3% | 43.1% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 92.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 46.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 38.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1496 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1507 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1503 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1323 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1336 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 100.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 74.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 58.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1501 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1491 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 47.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1512 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1503 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1492 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1480 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index71
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1312 | 1275 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1305 | 1340 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1365 | 1313 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1330 | 1281 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1368 | 1337 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1335 | 1293 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1244 | 1201 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| LiveBench design | 83.4% | 78.6% | 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 index20
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 61.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 79.5% | 78.4% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 51.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 65.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.7% | 80.3% | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 |
| DTBench | Not measured | 92.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 46.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 20.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1483 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1481 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1477 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1313 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1491 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1473 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1539 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1478 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1473 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1460 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1498 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1489 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1482 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1471 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1489 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1488 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1477 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1464 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1311 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1358 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1322 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1304 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1312 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | 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 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 17, 2026 | September 3, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $6.00 |
| Coding index | 83.3 | 63.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.32 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for coding?
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 for coding: it scores 83.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 63.5 for Qwen3.8 Max (0902). Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when what matters is LMArena WebDev or Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2.00 and $6.00. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902) comparison based on?
29 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 Qwen3.8 Max (0902)'s on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.