DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Comparing DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
DeepSeek · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 is roughly 10.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731
- cost matters — it's about 10.8x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2026
Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
- you want predictable pricing at $0.45/M input and $3.49/M output
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinkingdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 ($0.09/1M tokens) is 5.0x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($0.45/1M tokens).
For output processing, DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 ($0.18/1M tokens) is 19.4x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($3.49/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is more expensive than DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 has 68.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking, making it 28.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking's 262,144 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 is limited to 65,536 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 does not.
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 was released on 2026-07-31, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 is 10 months newer than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.
Jul 31, 2026
3 weeks ago
10mo newerSep 22, 2025
11 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 is available from DeepInfra, Novita, Fireworks. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is available from DeepInfra, Novita.
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.