DEEPSEEK VS ALIBABA
DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3 Max
DeepSeek V4 Flash is about 14x cheaper than Qwen3 Max on a blended 3:1 input:output rate — the same 10K-in/2K-out request costs $0.002 vs $0.024. DeepSeek V4 Flash has the larger context window (1,000,000 vs 252,000 tokens).
Pricing verified
API pricing per 1M tokens
| Model | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | Blended (3:1 mix) |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.14 | $0.28 | $0.175 |
| Qwen3 Max | $1.20 | $6.00 | $2.40 |
Rates from official DeepSeek pricing and official Alibaba pricing, checked 2026-08-11.
What a real workload costs
Example: one request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens, then that request at 100,000 runs per month.
| Model | Per request (10K in / 2K out) | Per month (100K requests) | Monthly delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.002 | $196 | — |
| Qwen3 Max | $0.024 | $2,400 | +$2,204 |
Model your own prompt sizes and volumes in the token cost analyzer, or check caching savings with the prompt caching calculator.
Specs side by side
| Spec | DeepSeek V4 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Alibaba |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 252,000 tokens |
| Model class | General text | Reasoning |
| Tokenizer | Proprietary (counts estimated) | qwen (exact, public) |
Count tokens for each model on its own page: DeepSeek V4 Flash token counter and Qwen3 Max token counter. All DeepSeek models are on the DeepSeek Token Counter. All Alibaba models are on the Qwen Token Counter.
FAQ
DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3 Max FAQ
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen3 Max?
DeepSeek V4 Flash is cheaper. At rates checked 2026-08-11, DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $0.14 input / $0.28 output per 1M tokens, while Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output — about a 14x difference on a typical 3:1 input-heavy workload.
How much does a real request cost on DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Qwen3 Max?
A request with 10,000 input tokens and 2,000 output tokens costs about $0.002 on DeepSeek V4 Flash and $0.024 on Qwen3 Max. At 100,000 such requests per month that is $196 vs $2,400 — a difference of $2,204 per month.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Qwen3 Max?
DeepSeek V4 Flash. It supports 1,000,000 tokens of context versus 252,000 tokens — roughly 750,000 English words in one request.
Do DeepSeek V4 Flash and Qwen3 Max count tokens the same way?
Not exactly. DeepSeek V4 Flash uses a proprietary tokenizer (counts are estimates) and Qwen3 Max uses the published qwen tokenizer. The same prompt will tokenize differently, which shifts effective cost per word.