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DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Of the 6 public leaderboards that rate both, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash on 1. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is at 58.7 and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 41.3 (out of 100).
Scores as published by each board; table composed November 13, 2026.
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Leaderboard by leaderboard
| Board | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Elo (community votes) | 1,663.7 | 1,583.5 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| LiveBench global average (0-100) | 70.3 | 57.3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| SimpleBench AVG@5 % (private set) | 66.7 | 82.4 | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
| Vals AI Vals Index accuracy % · weighted finance + coding tasks | 61.3 | 56 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Artificial Analysis intelligence index · measured runs only | 32.6 | 30.8 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Epoch AI Epoch Capabilities Index (ECI) · many benchmarks on one scale | 159.4 | 158.8 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
Raw scores are each board's own scale, so compare within a row, not across rows. Full table: the bench index.
For coding
On the ArtificialWatch coding index, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is at 70.4 (#13 of 48) and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 44.4 (#22). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on 2 of the 3 coding boards that rate both and Gemini 3.8 Flash on 1.
| Coding board | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena · Coding | 1,503.8 | 1,510.1 |
| LiveBench · Coding | 80.4 | 73.3 |
| Vals Vibe Code Bench | 87.7 | 78.7 |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at a glance
- Developer
- DeepSeek
- Status
- Live since September 10, 2026
Live — Sep 10 · 1M ctx · $0.15/$0.60 per 1M as our sweep read it, which is DeepSeek's off-peak rate (peak hours on weekdays cost double, $0.30/$1.20, per its pricing page) · DeepSeek serves it under the unversioned id deepseek-flash, so the id itself never carries the version · Oct 17: upgraded in place to the 1017 checkpoint (DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017, per DeepSeek's changelog), same deepseek-flash id and price, web and app updated too; open weights on Hugging Face as deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 (MIT, same config.json as the Sep 10 weights); OpenRouter lists it as deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 at $0.15/$0.60, 1M ctx, 384K max output · Oct 19: the Vals Index (updated Oct 18) scores the 1017 build 56.58%, #14 of 50 and the top open-weight model there, up from 51.32% for the Sep 10 build; $0.64 per test on Vals' run, against $0.33 for the Sep 10 build · Oct 19: DHS ordered DeepSeek products, and third-party products built on DeepSeek, excluded from and removed from US federal civilian agencies (Federal Register 2026-21447, publishing Oct 20) · Oct 20: DeepSeek open-sourced DeepInfer (Apache-2.0), the inference engine it serves V4.1 Flash with, for NVIDIA SM100 GPUs and Huawei Ascend 950 NPUs · Oct 20: Vals says the 1017 build completed 16.3 of 21 objectives on its coming offensive-cybersecurity benchmark, against 15.7 for GPT-6 Sol, on several times the tokens (a first finding; the full evaluation is due in the coming weeks).
DeepSeek open-sources DeepInfer, the engine behind V4.1 Flash, built for NVIDIA Blackwell and Huawei Ascend 950
2026-10-20 · DeepSeek released DeepInfer, the inference framework it says serves DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash at scale, as open source on October 20 under the Apache 2.0 license.
Vals: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash beat GPT-6 Sol on its offensive cybersecurity task, using about five times the tokens
2026-10-20 · Vals AI says DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, an open-weight model, completed more objectives than OpenAI's GPT-6 Sol on a multi-step offensive cybersecurity task built on simulated corporate networks.
Gemini 3.8 Flash at a glance
- Developer
- Status
- Live since September 2, 2026
- API price
- $0.75 input / $3.75 output per 1M tokens · Google, gemini-3.8-flash
- Context window
- 1.05M tokens
Live — GA Sep 2 · $0.75/$3.75 per 1M introductory through Dec 31, identical to 3.7 · 1M in / 64K out · 'our most intelligent Flash model' · 20 days after 3.7.
Gemini 3.8 Flash is GA — same price as 3.7, twenty days later
2026-09-02 · Google released Gemini 3.8 Flash today. The Gemini API changelog for September 2 reads: "Gemini 3.8 Flash generally available (GA): Released gemini-3.8-flash, our most intelligent Flash model, engineered for long-horizon software engineering, autonomous agents, and complex enterprise workflows."
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Gemini 3.8 Flash: quick answers
Which is better, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
It depends on what you measure. Of the 6 public leaderboards that rate both, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on 5 and Gemini 3.8 Flash on 1. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's widest lead is on LiveBench; Gemini 3.8 Flash's widest lead is on SimpleBench. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is at 58.7 and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 41.3 (out of 100).
Which is newer, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. It went live on September 10, 2026, 8 days after Gemini 3.8 Flash (September 2, 2026).
How do DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Gemini 3.8 Flash compare for coding?
On the ArtificialWatch coding index, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is at 70.4 (#13 of 48) and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 44.4 (#22). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores higher on 2 of the 3 coding boards that rate both and Gemini 3.8 Flash on 1.
Who makes DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Gemini 3.8 Flash?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is from DeepSeek; Gemini 3.8 Flash is from Google.
Where do these numbers come from?
Each score is the leaderboard's own published figure, read by ArtificialWatch (table composed November 13, 2026). Boards measure different things, so raw scores are only comparable within a row.
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