Qwen3.8 Flash Next vs DeepSeek V4-Flash
Qwen3.8 Flash Next scores higher on the intelligence index, 40 against 35. Both take the same machine to start: the cheapest here that runs either is the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB, at $10,799. On it, Qwen3.8 Flash Next is about 1.5× quicker: 74 tok/s against 49, both estimated from memory bandwidth. At 500k tokens a day the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB pays for itself in 372 years running Qwen3.8 Flash Next, against 1,736 years running DeepSeek V4-Flash.
| Qwen3.8 Flash Next | DeepSeek V4-Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence index | 40 | 35 |
| Class | Sonnet-class | Sonnet-class |
| Weights | 120 GB | 155 GB |
| Needs at 32k | 121 GB | 155 GB |
| Quantisation | Q4_K_M | UD-Q4_K_M |
| Parameters | 180B (6B active) | 284B (13B active) |
| Max context | 256k | 1M |
| API price per 1M | $0.15 in / $0.47 out | $0.04732 in / $0.09464 out |
| Licence | qwen-community-1.0 | MIT |
| Machines here that run it | 1 of 37 | 1 of 37 |
| Cheapest machine that runs it | Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 | Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB $10,799 |
Run Qwen3.8 Flash Next on the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB · or DeepSeek V4-Flash
Jump to: Side by side on the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB · How much use it takes to pay for the machine · Memory is not what separates them · The assumptions behind both columns
Side by side on the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB
The cheapest machine that runs either model is the same one, so this is the pair doing the same work on the same hardware: Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB, at $10,799.
| Qwen3.8 Flash Next | DeepSeek V4-Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed at 32k | 74 tok/s estimated | 49 tok/s estimated |
| Pay-back on this machine | Pays back in 372 years | Pays back in 1,736 years |
| API cost per month | $2.59 | $0.77 |
Run Qwen3.8 Flash Next on the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB · or DeepSeek V4-Flash
How much use it takes to pay for the machine
Everything above is at 500k tokens a day. Pay-back moves with how much you actually run, so here are both models at the five levels of use the calculator names, on the Mac Studio M5 Ultra, 256GB. Qwen3.8 Flash Next pays for it sooner at every level of use, so which of them to run does not turn on how hard you work it.
| A day's use | Qwen3.8 Flash Next | DeepSeek V4-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| 50ka few chats a day | 3,715 years | 17,360 years |
| 200klight assistant use | 929 years | 4,340 years |
| 1Ma moderate coding-assistant day | 186 years | 868 years |
| 4Mheavy coding with an agent | 46 years | 217 years |
| 20Magents running most of the day | 9.3 years | 43 years |
Run Qwen3.8 Flash Next at 20M tokens a day · or DeepSeek V4-Flash
Memory is not what separates them
Qwen3.8 Flash Next needs 121 GB of memory at 32k of context and DeepSeek V4-Flash needs 155 GB. Every machine priced here that runs one runs the other, at 32k of context. So the choice between them is what each is good at, how fast it runs and what the same work costs on an API, not what you have to buy to hold it.
Qwen3.8 Flash Next is also head to head with Ling 3.1 flash above it on the leaderboard and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507, the last-generation Qwen nearest it in size. DeepSeek V4-Flash is also head to head with Qwen3.8 27B below it on the leaderboard. Two more models need much the same memory: MiniMax M2.7 and Inkling Small.
The assumptions behind both columns
Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Where nobody rents an open model by the token, its API prices are the nearest hosted model's, named beside them. Machines are the 37 here with a published price that are still sold. Change any of it in the calculator.
More head to head: every machine that runs Qwen3.8 Flash Next · every machine that runs DeepSeek V4-Flash · every other match-up · both against the frontier · the quickest pay-back at each level of use