Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)
Qwen3.6-Plus vs DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Of the 20 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs DeepSeek, every model from both labs.
Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)? The short answer
Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 24.4). Pick DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) if cost matters more: it costs 4.2 times less per token.
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) is cheaper: $0.18 against $0.73 per million tokens, 4.2 times less.
- Qwen3.6-Plus scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 27.0 against 24.4.
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) is newer: released 24 Apr 2026, against 31 Mar 2026 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.6-Plus does better for writing; DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.6-Plus | DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.33 in · $1.95 out | $0.14 in · $0.28 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.73 | $0.18 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.053 (StreamLake, FP8) |
| Intelligence Index | 27.0 | 24.4 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Released | 31 Mar 2026 | 24 Apr 2026 (newer) |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Developer based in | China | China |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3.6-Plus | DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 85 of 387 measured | 1,443 | 1,438high reasoning |
| Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 81 of 163 measured | 1,438 | 1,439 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 91 of 380 measured | 1,446 | 1,439 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 62 · 80 of 243 measured | 27.0 | 24.4high reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 52 of 231 measured | 88.2% | 89.4%max reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 84 · 61 of 242 measured | 27.8% | 34.8%max reasoning |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 60 of 230 measured | 58.2thinking reasoning | 54.6no reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 54 of 230 measured | 8.0%thinking reasoning | 12.0%thinking reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 55 of 230 measured | 0.35no reasoning | 0.37thinking reasoning |
Show all 20 results (11 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.6-Plus | DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results | ||
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 78 of 385 measured | 1,407 | 1,410high reasoning |
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 83 of 338 measured | 1,476 | 1,466high reasoning |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 79 of 387 measured | 1,435 | 1,433high reasoning |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 78 of 386 measured | 1,423 | 1,422high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 45 of 130 measured | 61.4% | 61.8%max reasoning |
| τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48 · 34 of 121 measured | 20.8% | 30.9%max reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 45 of 131 measured | 54.5 | 56.2max reasoning |
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 29 · 7 of 195 measured | 75.2% | 79.2%max reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 54 · 82 of 233 measured | 78.3% | 74.3%max reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 23 · 37 of 190 measured | 43.9% | 38.6%high reasoning |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 7 · 16 of 193 measured | 97.7% | 95.6%high reasoning |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)?
Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 24.4). Pick DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) if cost matters more: it costs 4.2 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)?
DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) is cheaper: $0.18 against $0.73 per million tokens, 4.2 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)?
DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) ranks 52 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 63 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)?
DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) ranks 64 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 67 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)?
Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 54 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 62 for DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423).
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)?
Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 80 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 83 for DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423).
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423)?
DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423): 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Run Qwen3.6-Plus and DeepSeek-V4-Flash (0423) on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.