Is DeepSeek V3.2 a good deal?

As of Oct 13, 2026, DeepSeek V3.2 is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. GLM 5.3 Flash scores 46.6 higher and costs 18% less, with a covering envelope. 11 of 143 rated, priced standard models are undominated. GLM 5.3 Flash: Price under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026.

Inspect model evidence Compare differences & requirements

GLM 5.3 Flash is both better and cheaper than DeepSeek V3.2: 46.6 points higher on LMArena and 18% less per million tokens, $0.053 cheaper at this mix.

DeepSeek V3.2 takes text, returns up to 147,456 tokens from a 163,840-token context, and is listed by 12 sellers. Open weights, so it can also be self-hosted.

Compared against 143 rated, priced models on this lens: 4 models dominate it and give up nothing, 4 more dominate it but give something up. DeepSeek V3.2 scores 1424.5 at $0.290 per million tokens for this mix.

Envelope-safe replacements

Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here.

Model	LMArena	Effective $/M	You save
GLM 5.3 Flash	1471.1 +46.6	$0.238/MPrice under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026	18%
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	1462.4 +37.9	$0.182/MPrice under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026	37%
Gemma 4 26B A4B	1434.2 +9.7	$0.127/MPrice under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026	56%
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423	1432.1 +7.6	$0.113/MPrice under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026	61%

Higher score, lower price, named losses

Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation.

Model	LMArena	Effective $/M	You give up
MiMo-V2.6-Flash	1455.2	$0.175/MPrice under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026	max output
Gemma 4 31B	1443.0	$0.205/M	max output
Hy3	1438.8	$0.231/M	max output
MiMo-V2.5	1427.6	$0.175/MPrice under confirmation since Oct 12, 2026	max output

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