Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen 3 Max benchmark

Name: DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen 3 Max AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek V4 Flash (DeepSeek) and Qwen 3 Max (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Qwen 3 Max is ahead by 28 points (1,518 vs 1,490; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, DeepSeek V4 Flash resolves 71.2% versus 67.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 16, 2026)). DeepSeek V4 Flash streams faster (142 tok/s) while DeepSeek V4 Flash is the cheaper output token ($0.28/1M). DeepSeek V4 Flash has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek Jul 31 2026 price-performance SKU. Public listings put it near $0.14/$0.28 per 1M tokens.

Elo 1,490$0.28/1M out

Alibaba

Qwen 3 Max

Alibaba flagship. Strong math and multilingual code.

Elo 1,518$3.9/1M out

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Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek V4 Flash (6)vsQwen 3 Max (4)

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 6W (60%)Overall: DeepSeek V4 FlashQwen 3 Max: 4W (40%)

← DeepSeek V4 FlashQwen 3 Max →

Qwen 3 Max (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,518

Coding Elo

1,516vs1,526

SWE-bench

71.2%vs67.8%

LiveBench

67.8%vs69.4%

GPQA Diamond

81.6%vs83.1%

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 1WQwen 3 Max: 4W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

142 tok/svs80 tok/s

Time to first token

165 msvs280 ms

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 2WQwen 3 Max: 0W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$0.28/1Mvs$3.9/1M

Input price

$0.14/1Mvs$0.78/1M

Context window

1Mvs262k

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 3WQwen 3 Max: 0W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageDeepSeek V4 Flash 4/6

Preference Elo

Qwen 3 Max

28 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

DeepSeek V4 Flash

62 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek V4 Flash

$3.62/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,490

EloHigh is better

1,518+2%

Code Elo

High is better

1,516

Code EloHigh is better

1,526+1%

LiveBench

High is better

67.8%

LiveBenchHigh is better

69.4%+2%

SWE-bench

High is better

+5%71.2%

SWE-benchHigh is better

67.8%

GPQA

High is better

81.6%

GPQAHigh is better

83.1%+2%

TTFT

Low is better

+70%165 ms

TTFTLow is better

280 ms

Speed

High is better

+78%142 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

80 tok/s

In $

Low is better

+457%$0.14/1M

In $Low is better

$0.78/1M

Out $

Low is better

+1293%$0.28/1M

Out $Low is better

$3.9/1M

Context

High is better

+300%1M

ContextHigh is better

262k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 89% with DeepSeek V4 Flash

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

DeepSeek V4 Flash$9.10 / mo

In: $4.90Out: $4.20

Qwen 3 Max$85.80 / mo

In: $27.30Out: $58.50

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek V4 Flash is estimated to save $76.70/month ($920/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
DeepSeek V4 Flash:Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
DeepSeek V4 Flash:Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
DeepSeek V4 Flash:Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek V4 Flash

Higher SWE-bench (71.2%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower TTFT (165 ms).

Long-document RAGDeepSeek V4 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionQwen 3 Max

Qwen 3 Max is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Higher SWE-bench (71.2%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower TTFT (165 ms).
Long-document RAG	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Qwen 3 Max	Qwen 3 Max is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

priceJul 31, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Flash (Jul 31): the $0.14/$0.28 price-performance SKU

Public listings put Flash near $0.14/$0.28 per 1M. That is a batch SKU, not a chatbot crown.

launchApr 18, 2026

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Closed flagship. Strong math. Compare to Sol and Opus on GPQA and SWE-bench, not on brand heat.

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

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LIVE

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Elo 1,490

LiveBench67.8%

SWE-bench71.2%

Speed142 tok/s

Output cost$0.28/1M

Alibaba

Qwen 3 Max

Elo 1,518

LiveBench69.4%

SWE-bench67.8%

Speed80 tok/s

Output cost$3.9/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen 3 Max?: Qwen 3 Max has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,518). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen 3 Max?: DeepSeek V4 Flash leads SWE-bench at 71.2% vs 67.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek V4 Flash output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $3.9/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen 3 Max?: DeepSeek V4 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (165 ms vs 280 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: DeepSeek V4 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 262k.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek V4 Flash is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DeepSeek V4 Flash and Qwen 3 Max Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All DeepSeek V4 Flash matchups →|All Qwen 3 Max matchups →

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Pro (previous deepseek)Qwen 3 Max vs Qwen QwQ 32B (previous qwen)Qwen 3 Max vs Qwen3.8 27B (next qwen)Qwen QwQ 32B vs DeepSeek V4 Flash DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Qwen 3 Max Qwen 2.5 Plus vs DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen 3 Max benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek V4 Flash (6)vsQwen 3 Max (4)

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 6W (60%)Overall: DeepSeek V4 FlashQwen 3 Max: 4W (40%)

← DeepSeek V4 FlashQwen 3 Max →

Qwen 3 Max (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,518

Coding Elo

1,516vs1,526

SWE-bench

71.2%vs67.8%

LiveBench

67.8%vs69.4%

GPQA Diamond

81.6%vs83.1%

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 1WQwen 3 Max: 4W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

142 tok/svs80 tok/s

Time to first token

165 msvs280 ms

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 2WQwen 3 Max: 0W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$0.28/1Mvs$3.9/1M

Input price

$0.14/1Mvs$0.78/1M

Context window

1Mvs262k

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 3WQwen 3 Max: 0W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsDeepSeek V4 Flash

Higher SWE-bench (71.2%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower TTFT (165 ms).

Long-document RAGDeepSeek V4 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionQwen 3 Max

Qwen 3 Max is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Higher SWE-bench (71.2%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower TTFT (165 ms).
Long-document RAG	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Qwen 3 Max	Qwen 3 Max is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen 3 Max?

Qwen 3 Max has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,518). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen 3 Max?

DeepSeek V4 Flash leads SWE-bench at 71.2% vs 67.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek V4 Flash output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $3.9/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen 3 Max?

DeepSeek V4 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (165 ms vs 280 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

DeepSeek V4 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 262k.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek V4 Flash is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. DeepSeek V4 Flash and Qwen 3 Max Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Qwen 3 Max

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

DeepSeek V4 Flash (Jul 31): the $0.14/$0.28 price-performance SKU

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

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CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Qwen 3 Max

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Qwen 3 Max

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

DeepSeek V4 Flash (Jul 31): the $0.14/$0.28 price-performance SKU

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Qwen 3 Max

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons