SQL · 6 checks · max 500 tokens · benched 2026-09-16

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on top five customers by 2025 spend

DeepSeek models side by side on "Top five customers by 2025 spend": DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 scores 10/10; DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 is the cheapest answer scoring 8+ at $0.03 per 1,000 runs. Outputs, checks, judge reasons, latency and cost.

The prompt every model received

System

You are a database engineer. Reply with a single SQL statement and nothing else.

User

Tables: customers(id, name) and orders(id, customer_id, amount, ordered_at). Write one standard SQL query that returns each customer's name and their total order amount for calendar year 2025, highest total first, limited to the top 5. Use a JOIN, GROUP BY and ORDER BY.

Rubric for the judge: Correct join and aggregate, filters ordered_at to 2025, sorts descending, limits to 5, portable SQL.

Side by side

Every cell is one OpenRouter call at temperature 0 with the prompt's token cap and reasoning effort "low" where the model supports it. Cost is usage × the catalogue rate in models.json. Quality is one judge call to anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 against the prompt's rubric, cached per prompt version.

DeepSeek V4 Pro

deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro

10/10

Latency: 472ms
Cost: $0.00106
Per 1,000: $1.06

162 in · 565 out (485 reasoning) · 33 words · checks 6/6

regex
regex
regex
regex
regex
contains

SELECT c.name, SUM(o.amount) AS total_amount
FROM customers c
JOIN orders o ON c.id = o.customer_id
WHERE o.ordered_at >= '2025-01-01' AND o.ordered_at < '2026-01-01'
GROUP BY c.id, c.name
ORDER BY total_amount DESC
LIMIT 5;

Judge: Query correctly joins customers and orders, filters 2025 using date range, groups by customer with proper aggregation, orders descending by total, limits to 5, and uses portable standard SQL syntax.

DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423

deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash

10/10

top judge scorecheapest scoring 8+

Latency: 605ms
Cost: $2.6e-5
Per 1,000: $0.03

83 in · 150 out (71 reasoning) · 33 words · checks 6/6

regex
regex
regex
regex
regex
contains

SELECT c.name, SUM(o.amount) AS total_amount
FROM customers c
JOIN orders o ON c.id = o.customer_id
WHERE o.ordered_at >= '2025-01-01' AND o.ordered_at < '2026-01-01'
GROUP BY c.id, c.name
ORDER BY total_amount DESC
LIMIT 5;

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash

9/10

Latency: 219ms
Cost: $0.00027
Per 1,000: $0.27

109 in · 428 out (307 reasoning) · 40 words · checks 5/6

regex
regex
regex
regex
regex
contains

SELECT c.name, COALESCE(SUM(o.amount), 0) AS total_amount
FROM customers c
LEFT JOIN orders o
  ON o.customer_id = c.id
 AND o.ordered_at >= DATE '2025-01-01'
 AND o.ordered_at < DATE '2026-01-01'
GROUP BY c.id, c.name
ORDER BY total_amount DESC
FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS ONLY;

Judge: Query correctly joins, filters 2025 orders, groups by customer, orders descending, and limits to 5 using portable FETCH syntax; minor deduction only because LEFT JOIN with date filter in ON clause (rather than WHERE) is unconventional and could include customers with no 2025 orders, though this may

Frequently asked

What does this prompt test?

SQL: Correct join and aggregate, filters ordered_at to 2025, sorts descending, limits to 5, portable SQL. The deterministic checks are regex, regex, regex, regex, regex, contains.

Which model should I pick for this task?

If the judge's bar of 8/10 is good enough for you, DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 at $0.03 per 1,000 runs. If you need the top score, DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 at $0.03 per 1,000 runs.

Same prompt, other families

Run it yourself

Re-run this prompt on DeepSeek with your own OpenRouter key, or tweak the wording and see what changes.