Standard Compute
Model Comparison 2026

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Qwen3 235B A22B

DeepSeek V4 Pro
DeepSeek · Frontier · Open weights
$1.08/1M · 1.0M ctx
Qwen3 235B A22B
Alibaba (Qwen) · Budget · Open weights
$0.23/1M · 262K ctx

Community Vote

Pick a winner in each dimension — change your vote anytime.

Output Quality
Correctness and depth of what it produces
Agentic Ability
Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks
Speed
Tokens per second and time-to-first-token
Value for $
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results — fewer refusals, loops, and format breaks

Specs & Pricing, Side by Side

Spec
DeepSeek V4 Pro
Qwen3 235B
Maker
DeepSeek
Alibaba (Qwen)
Blended price / 1M
$1.08
$0.23
Input / output
$0.83 in · $1.66 out / 1M tokens
$0.09 in · $0.55 out / 1M tokens
Context window
1.0M
262K
Open weights
Yes
Yes
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
No
Output Quality
8.9
8.0
Agentic Ability
9.0
8.0
Speed
7.4
8.2
Value for $
9.4
10.0
Reliability
8.8
8.8

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: DeepSeek V4 Pro or Qwen3 235B?

Updated 2026-09-05

Choose DeepSeek V4 Pro if you want cost-conscious agents that still want top-tier output. Choose Qwen3 235B A22B if you want self-hosted or ultra-cheap open-weight agents.

Editorially it's close: each model leads in 2 of our five dimensions. On price, DeepSeek V4 Pro runs about $1.08 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; Qwen3 235B A22B is about $0.23 and open-weight.

Where DeepSeek V4 Pro falls short
  • Tool-use polish behind the top closed models
  • Hosted throughput varies by provider
Full DeepSeek V4 Pro breakdown →
Where Qwen3 235B falls short
  • Behind frontier models on quality
  • Needs real GPUs to self-host well
Full Qwen3 235B breakdown →

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