Model Comparison
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Muse Wonder
Too close to call: the best configurations, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) and Muse Wonder (max), are 19 Elo apart, and their 95% ranges overlap. Among 80 models, each ranked by its best configuration, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is #14 and Muse Wonder is #16. Cost per script: $0.017 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) and $0.309 for Muse Wonder (max).
Last updated , from board data generated at 20:08 UTC.
Picks and Verdict
Ranks in the picks and verdict are configuration ranks: each setting's place among all 132 configurations. The cards above give each model's rank.
PickDeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max)
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) as the default, since the board can't separate it from Muse Wonder's best and it costs $0.017 a script with open weights.
PickMuse Wonder
Muse Wonder (max)
Pick Muse Wonder (max) when the substance of a script matters most, since it leads DeepSeek at max by 4.3 points there and wins six of the ten scripts, at $0.309 a script.
The board can't separate these two at their best, and one costs about 18 times as much as the other. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) is #28 on the board and Muse Wonder (max) is #31, 19 Elo apart with overlapping 95% ranges, which makes DeepSeek the #14 model of 80 and Muse Wonder the #16 model. DeepSeek charges $0.017 a script, Muse $0.309, and they finish in 2.4 and 2.0 minutes. Muse carries 4.3 more points of substance, opens stronger and wins six of the ten scripts. DeepSeek lands the length far better, 95.9 against 82.5, sounds a little more like me, and varies less from draft to draft. Down the ladders, DeepSeek holds up better. The board can't separate DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (high), at $0.012, from Muse's best either, and DeepSeek at low still clears Muse at high and adaptive with separate ranges. Muse drops 341 Elo from max to high, mostly on length, and even DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (no thinking), at $0.0037, overlaps Muse at high and adaptive. Add open weights on DeepSeek's side and closed ones on Muse's, and DeepSeek at max is my default.
How to Read the Writing Score, Writing Elo and 95% Ranges
Writing Score and Writing Elo. The Writing Score (0 to 100) is the weighted average of the nine metric scores: seven from the judges, Length Adherence from code and the Slop Score half from each. The Writing Elo is a rating from pairwise comparisons: on each script, each configuration's average across its drafts is compared with every other configuration's, and gaps within the draft-to-draft variation count as draws. Elo rewards winning often, so the two can put configurations in a different order.
Elo ranges. Each 95% range shows how far a configuration's Elo could move if the drafts had come out slightly differently. It comes from resampling every configuration's recorded draft scores on each reference script and ranking again. Comparing two separate ranges does not test the Elo gap between them: ranges far apart are strong evidence for the order, and overlapping ranges do not mean a tie. The reference scripts stay fixed, so the ranges say nothing about new scripts. The methodology page has the full description.
All Thinking Levels of Both Models
Every ranked configuration of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Muse Wonder, scored on the same 10 scripts by the same four judges.
- Each row is one configuration: the model at one thinking level. The dot is its Writing Elo, a rating from pairwise comparisons of the scores on each script, and the bar is its 95% range: how far that Elo could move if the drafts had come out slightly differently.
- When two bars overlap, the board cannot order those two configurations. Bars far apart are strong evidence for the order.
- The table under the chart lists the same configurations in the same order and adds the Writing Score (the 0 to 100 consensus of the judges and code), cost, time and configuration rank (the place among all configurations on the board).
Shaded rows are the configurations chosen for the metric comparison below.
| Configuration | Writing Elo | 95% Range | Writing Score | Cost / Script | Time / Script | Reasoning Tokens | Configuration Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) | 2024 | 1988 to 2059 | 81.0 | $0.017 | 2.4 min | 22,010 | #28 |
| Muse Wonder (max) | 2005 | 1959 to 2044 | 80.6 | $0.309 | 2.0 min | 9,601 | #31 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (high) | 1956 | 1905 to 2001 | 80.3 | $0.012 | 1.1 min | 13,809 | #38 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (low) | 1857 | 1810 to 1903 | 79.3 | $0.0077 | 0.7 min | 6,740 | #45 |
| Muse Wonder (high) | 1664 | 1600 to 1724 | 76.7 | $0.149 | 0.9 min | 1,385 | #58 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (no thinking) | 1633 | 1579 to 1673 | 76.8 | $0.0037 | 0.3 min | 0 | #64 |
| Muse Wonder (adaptive) | 1604 | 1550 to 1661 | 76.2 | $0.139 | 0.8 min | 766 | #70 |
Cost is one script at the API list price of the route used, uncached and without judging. Time is the average for one accepted script, retries included.
Computed Findings Across Thinking Levels
Each finding is computed from the configurations above. Where two 95% ranges overlap, the board cannot order those two configurations.
- Best Configurations Head to Head. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) at Elo 2024 (range 1988 to 2059) and Muse Wonder (max) at Elo 2005 (range 1959 to 2044) have overlapping 95% ranges, so the board cannot separate the two best configurations.
- Lowest Thinking Levels Head to Head. At their lowest thinking levels, Muse Wonder (high) at Elo 1664 and $0.149 per script leads DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (no thinking) at Elo 1633 and $0.0037 per script by 31 Elo. Their 95% ranges overlap, so the board cannot separate them.
- Same Level Name, Side by Side. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has the higher Writing Elo at every level name both models use: high and max. The 95% ranges do not overlap at high. Level names come from each provider, so the same name does not promise the same reasoning budget.
- Cheapest Configuration Overlapping the Top One. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (high), at $0.012 per script, is the cheapest configuration whose 95% range overlaps that of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max), at $0.017 per script: 1905 to 2001 against 1988 to 2059, so the board cannot separate them. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) costs about 1.4 times as much per script.
- Cheapest DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Configuration Above Muse Wonder's Best. The cheapest DeepSeek V4.1 Flash configuration with a higher Writing Elo than Muse Wonder (max), at Elo 2005 and $0.309 per script, is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max), at Elo 2024 and $0.017 per script. Their 95% ranges overlap, so the board cannot separate them. It costs less than the configuration it beats.
- Lowest to Highest Thinking Level. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash moves +391 Elo from no thinking to max, at about 4.6 times the cost per script. Muse Wonder moves +341 Elo from high to max, at about 2.1 times the cost per script.
Writing Elo at Each Shared Level Name
| Level | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Muse Wonder | Gap | 95% Ranges |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | 1956 | 1664 | +292 | Separate |
| max | 2024 | 2005 | +19 | Overlap |
Gap is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash minus Muse Wonder at the same level name, using each model's highest-rated configuration at that level.
Two Chosen Configurations Compared
Pick one configuration of each model to compare their metric scores, consistency across drafts and per-script scores. Each menu starts on the model's best configuration.
Scores by Metric
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) scores higher on four of the nine metrics and Muse Wonder (max) on five. Weighted by each metric's share of the Writing Score, Length Adherence does the most to put DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) ahead, with a 13.4-point lead on that metric. The weight beside each metric is its share of the Writing Score.
Consistency Across Drafts
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) | Muse Wonder (max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Score spread across drafts (±) | 1.30 | 1.91 |
| Lowest script score | 79.7 Script 10 | 78.2 Script 10 |
| Highest script score | 82.4 Script 7 | 82.2 Script 5 |
| Range across scripts | 2.7 | 4.0 |
Spread is how much the Writing Score moves between a configuration's drafts, and lower is steadier. Green marks the better number in each row.
Scores by Script
Writing Score on each reference script. Gap is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) minus Muse Wonder (max), and the higher score is in bold.
| Script | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) | Muse Wonder (max) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script 1 opinion / warning explainer | 80.8 | 81.3 | -0.5 |
| Script 2 news-analysis / skeptical explainer | 81.2 | 81.7 | -0.5 |
| Script 3 personal roadmap / opinion | 81.2 | 81.3 | -0.1 |
| Script 4 short explainer | 80.1 | 79.5 | +0.6 |
| Script 5 news-analysis / opinion explainer | 81.1 | 82.2 | -1.1 |
| Script 6 founder announcement / personal origin story | 80.8 | 81.3 | -0.5 |
| Script 7 personal technical walkthrough / agentic workflow case study | 82.4 | 78.5 | +3.9 |
| Script 8 product release announcement / personal observation | 80.7 | 82.1 | -1.4 |
| Script 9 career guide / hiring analysis | 82.2 | 79.9 | +2.3 |
| Script 10 engineering process walkthrough / presentation adaptation | 79.7 | 78.2 | +1.5 |
Scorecards and Thinking Pages
Each configuration name in the table above opens its own scorecard.
Compare With Another Model
Pick a second model. A pair with its own written match-up opens that page, and any other pair opens in the comparison tool.
Nearby Match-Ups by Best Writing Elo
Every configuration wrote five drafts for each of the same 10 briefs, from the same prompt. Generation was closed-book, with the prompt as the only source and no web search or other tools. Each judge scores every draft once: Claude Opus 5.5 at medium effort through the Claude Code subscription, GPT-6.1 Sol at medium reasoning through the Codex CLI, GLM 5.3 Flash through OpenRouter, and Jev 1.13, a typed judge from TypeSafe that answers each metric as a multiple-choice question. The channel's finished script is their reference for the voice, and it gets no score on the board itself.
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