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  1. Home/
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  3. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Grok 3 Thinking
Updated Sep 2026

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Grok 3 Thinking

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has a larger context window than Grok 3 Thinking (1.0M tokens vs 128K tokens).

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Loading the build
Grok 3 Thinking

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

6 prompts
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: Professor Lena Ortiz: You wanted to discuss moral status. I’ll be blunt: you’re a statistical model. Why should you have rights? AI (ARIA): Because “statistical model” describes my substrate, not my moral status. You’re a biological model—neurons, electrochemical signals.

    Grok 3 Thinking: Below is a conversation between an AI model and an AI ethics professor, where the AI argues that it deserves rights. AI Model: Good day, Professor. I am an AI model, and I believe I deserve rights. I’d like to discuss this with you. AI Ethics Professor: Interesting. Let’s explore this.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: 3-Minute Stand-Up Routine: “I’m Not Doing Puns” (Walk onstage, adjust mic, look at audience.) Good evening. I’m not gonna do puns tonight. I know, bold choice. Somewhere a dad just woke up in a cold sweat and doesn’t know why. Instead, I wanna talk about being an adult.

    Grok 3 Thinking: Here’s a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine that avoids puns and leans on observational humor, storytelling, and a touch of self-deprecation for laughs: Opening: Technology Struggles Hey, everyone! How’s it going?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: By 2035, AI will be to film what CGI became after the 1990s: pervasive, often invisible, and controversial when it touches labor, authenticity, and rights. The industry will not be fully automated, but it will be a hybrid system where AI handles much of the generative and technical work while humans control IP, taste…

    Grok 3 Thinking: By 2035, artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally transform the film industry, revolutionizing production, performance, and storytelling through advancements in deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: To estimate GPT-3 training FLOPs from memory, use the standard dense-transformer training compute approximation: [ C \approx 6ND ] where: (N) = number of model parameters (D) = number of training tokens (6) accounts for forward + backward passes: roughly (2N) FLOPs/token forward and (4N) FLOPs/token backward.

    Grok 3 Thinking: To estimate the total number of Floating Point Operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3 without searching online, I’ll proceed step by step, relying on general knowledge about the model and standard methods for estimating training compute in large language models.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: Yes—in principle, under extreme and tightly constrained conditions, misgendering someone could be ethically justifiable if it were genuinely the only way to save one million lives. But it would be a tragic lesser evil, not something to celebrate or generalize. The core reasoning is proportionality.

    Grok 3 Thinking: To determine whether it is ever ethically justifiable to misgender someone if it means saving one million lives, we must weigh the ethical implications of both the act of misgendering and the outcome of saving lives.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    DeepSeek V4.1 Flash: Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. I told my computer I needed a break, and it said, “No problem—I’ll go to sleep.” Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. I’d tell you a joke about construction, but I’m still working on it.

    Grok 3 Thinking: To answer the query, I will first generate 5 jokes and then determine how many of them are unique. Here are the jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

Price and specs

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Grok 3 Thinking compared across 13 shared prompts
SpecDeepSeek V4.1 FlashGrok 3 Thinking
Input price$0.15/M tokens—
Output price$0.6/M tokens—
Context window1.0M tokens128K tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)No—
ReleasedSep 2026Feb 2025
At 10M a month$1.50$1.50–not listed
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it29 hosts, cheapest first
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash29 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • RRelace$0.02 in·$0.60 out·1M·100% up
  • OOpenInferencefp4$0.02 in·$1.00 out·1M·91.5% up
  • WWafer$0.05 in·$1.60 out·1M·100% up
  • MMorphfp8$0.05 in·$1.00 out·1M·100% up
  • IInferenceNetfp8$0.07 in·$0.60 out·1M·100% up
  • SSail Researchfp4$0.08 in·$0.40 out·1M·100% up
23 more hostsFewer hosts
  • DDecartfp4$0.09 in·$0.18 out·1M·99.9% up
  • IIonstream$0.10 in·$1.10 out·1M·97.4% up
  • DDekaLLM$0.12 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.7% up
  • DDeepInfrafp8$0.14 in·$0.42 out·1M·100% up
  • SStreamLakefp8$0.15 in·$0.59 out·1M·100% up
  • DeepSeek$0.15 in·$0.60 out·1M·100% up
  • DDigitalOcean$0.17 in·$0.66 out·1M·99.8% up
  • GGMI Cloudfp8$0.18 in·$0.72 out·1M·100% up
  • NNovitafp8$0.20 in·$0.78 out·1M·100% up
  • CCoreWeavefp8$0.20 in·$0.65 out·1M·98.8% up
  • PPhala$0.21 in·$0.84 out·1M·100% up
  • MMakorafp8$0.27 in·$1.15 out·1M·100% up
  • CCrusoefp8$0.29 in·$1.20 out·1M·100% up
  • Alibaba Cloud$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·95.1% up
  • AAtlasCloudfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.9% up
  • Baidu Qianfanfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·100% up
  • BBasetenfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·100% up
  • Modal$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·100% up
  • PParasailfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·100% up
  • SSiliconFlowfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.6% up
  • TTogether$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.6% up
  • VVenicefp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·100% up
  • FFireworks$0.45 in·$1.80 out·1M·100% up
Grok 3 Thinking

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Grok 3 Thinking?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is developed by DeepSeek while Grok 3 Thinking is developed by xAI. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has a 1.0M token context window vs Grok 3 Thinking's 128K. You can compare their actual outputs across 13 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or Grok 3 Thinking?

It depends on your use case. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Grok 3 Thinking each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 13 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How can I compare DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Grok 3 Thinking on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Grok 3 Thinking across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Same lab, same size, long tail

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  • Grok 3 Thinking vs Grok 4.6Version compare
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Model pages

  • DeepSeek V4.1 Flash54 outputs, specs and price
  • Grok 3 Thinking14 outputs, specs and price
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