DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Gemini 4 Argon vs Claude Haiku 5.5
Claude Haiku 5.5 comes out ahead, 83 to 79 and 74 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
DeepSeekDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
79/100- ECI158.8
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context1M
GoogleGemini 4 Argon
74/100- ECI166.1
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 5.5
83/100- ECI160.4
- Price$0.10 / $0.50
- Context1M
Claude Haiku 5.5 is our pick
Claude Haiku 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (79) and Gemini 4 Argon (74). It leads on price. Gemini 4 Argon wins on capability and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGemini 4 ArgonCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 · Claude Haiku 5.5 160.4 · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 158.8
- Lowest priceClaude Haiku 5.5Claude Haiku 5.5 $0.20 · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.263 · Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGemini 4 ArgonGemini 4 Argon 1,048,576 · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 1,000,000 · Claude Haiku 5.5 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGemini 4 ArgonDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: Text, Images · Gemini 4 Argon: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Claude Haiku 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 | Gemini 4 Argon | Claude Haiku 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 87 | 96 | 89 |
| Price | 25% | 74 | 20 | 80 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 100 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 79/100 | 74/100 | 83/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017DeepSeek | Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle | Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 158.8 | 166.1 (best) | 160.4 |
| ECI rank | #19 of 165 | #7 of 165 (best) | #14 of 165 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 93.2% | 96.4% (best) | 89.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 71.2% | 86.0% (best) | 75.1% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 99.4% | 100% (best) | 98.9% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 42.5% | 76.0% (best) | 23.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 | $2.00 | $0.10 (best) |
| Output | $0.60 | $10.00 | $0.50 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.003 (best) | $0.10 | $0.01 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.263 | $4.00 | $0.20 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Over 100K: $0.50 / $2.50 |
| Price source | Official DeepSeek API | Official Google API | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 384,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | Yes | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · high · max | Yeslow · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenMIT | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | deepseek-flash | gemini-4-argon | claude-haiku-5-5 |
| API providers | 40 (best) | 24 | 33 |
| Released | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 13, 2026 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2025 | Mar 2026 | Jun 2026 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017$2.70
- Gemini 4 Argon$40.00
- Claude Haiku 5.5$2.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, Gemini 4 Argon or Claude Haiku 5.5?
Claude Haiku 5.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 83/100 against DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (79) and Gemini 4 Argon (74). It leads on price. Gemini 4 Argon wins on capability and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, Gemini 4 Argon or Claude Haiku 5.5?
Claude Haiku 5.5 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official DeepSeek API price); Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.20 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 5.5 versus $0.263 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (1.3× as much) and $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (20× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Gemini 4 Argon scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 (#7 of 165), Claude Haiku 5.5 160.4 (#14 of 165) and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 158.8 (#19 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (163.1–170.3 vs 157.3–163.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 93.2%, Claude Haiku 5.5 89.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Gemini 4 Argon 86.0%, Claude Haiku 5.5 75.1%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 71.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 4 Argon 100%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 99.4%, Claude Haiku 5.5 98.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 4 Argon 76.0%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 42.5%, Claude Haiku 5.5 23.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, Gemini 4 Argon and Claude Haiku 5.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 4 Argon leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemini 4 Argon has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and 1,000,000 for Claude Haiku 5.5. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 up to 384,000, Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536, Claude Haiku 5.5 up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 accepts text and images; Gemini 4 Argon accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Claude Haiku 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Gemini 4 Argon handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Gemini 4 Argon and Claude Haiku 5.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is the newest, released Oct 17, 2026. Gemini 4 Argon came out Oct 13, 2026; Claude Haiku 5.5 came out Oct 7, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 May 2025, Gemini 4 Argon Mar 2026, Claude Haiku 5.5 Jun 2026.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
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