ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Gemini 4 Argon vs Claude Sonnet 5.5

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 comes out ahead, 79 to 74 and 72 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    DeepSeek

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017

    Released Oct 17, 2026New

    79/100
    • ECI158.8
    • Price$0.15 / $0.60
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017

  2. Google

    Gemini 4 Argon

    Released Oct 13, 2026New

    74/100
    • ECI166.1
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 4 Argon

  3. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Released Sep 28, 2026New

    72/100
    • ECI166.7
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 5.5
01 — Verdict

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is our pick

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is the better all-round choice, scoring 79/100 against Gemini 4 Argon (74) and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (72). It leads on price. Gemini 4 Argon wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 · Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 · DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 158.8
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 $0.263 · Gemini 4 Argon $4.00 · Claude Sonnet 5.5 $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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Gemini 4 ArgonClaude Sonnet 5.5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%879697
Price25%742020
Inputs & features15%7010080
Context window10%606160
Overall100%79/10074/10072/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Gemini 4 Argon vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationDeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017DeepSeekGemini 4 ArgonGoogleClaude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)158.8166.1166.7 (best)
ECI rank#19 of 165#7 of 165#5 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions93.2%96.4% (best)95.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics71.2%86.0%88.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.4%100% (best)100% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions42.5%76.0% (best)46.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15 (best)$2.00$2.00
Output$0.60 (best)$10.00$10.00
Cached input$0.003 (best)$0.10$0.10
Blended (3:1)$0.263 (best)$4.00$4.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial DeepSeek APIOfficial Google APIOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output384,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens128,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoYesYes
AudioNoYesNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · high · maxYeslow · medium · highYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenMITProprietaryProprietary
API model IDdeepseek-flashgemini-4-argonclaude-sonnet-5-5
API providers40 (best)2434
ReleasedOct 17, 2026Oct 13, 2026Sep 28, 2026
Knowledge cutoffMay 2025Mar 2026Jun 2026
03 — Cost

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 Sonnet 5.5$40.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, Gemini 4 Argon or Claude Sonnet 5.5?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is the better all-round choice, scoring 79/100 against Gemini 4 Argon (74) and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (72). It leads on price. Gemini 4 Argon wins on 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 Sonnet 5.5?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is cheaper at $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); Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.263 per million tokens for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 versus $4.00 for Gemini 4 Argon (15× as much) and $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 (15× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.7 (#5 of 165), Gemini 4 Argon 166.1 (#7 of 165) and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 158.8 (#19 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (163.6–171.3 vs 163.1–170.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 95.6%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 93.2%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.8%, Gemini 4 Argon 86.0%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 71.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 4 Argon 100%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 100%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 99.4%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 4 Argon 76.0%, Claude Sonnet 5.5 46.5%, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 42.5%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, Gemini 4 Argon and Claude Sonnet 5.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 5.5 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 Sonnet 5.5. Maximum output per response: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 up to 384,000, Gemini 4 Argon up to 65,536, Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 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 Sonnet 5.5 came out Sep 28, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 May 2025, Gemini 4 Argon Mar 2026, Claude Sonnet 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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