The verdict
DeepSeek-V4 appears in 1 AI-ranked category — best position #1 for open-weight llm.
Positioning brief — for the DeepSeek-V4 team
Why the models put DeepSeek-V4 at #1 for open-weight llm
- strong coding, reasoning, and agentic workflows Gemini · GPT · Grok“frontier-level intelligence for coding, reasoning, and agentic workflows”
- permissive MIT license Gemini · GPT · Grok“permissive MIT license”
- long context at competitive cost GPT · Grok“1M+ context at competitive cost/performance”
- exceptional efficiency and strong API value Gemini · GPT · Grok“Exceptional efficiency (MoE with low active params)”
What would move the rank — the models’ fix lines, unified
- unrealistic for typical practitioners to self-host GPT · Gemini“unrealistic for typical practitioners to self-host”
- requires high-end multi-GPU cluster infrastructure GPT · Gemini“requiring high-end multi-GPU cluster infrastructure”
- ecosystem less mature than Meta's Grok“ecosystem less mature than Meta's”
Restructured from verbatim model output · nothing invented · every quote machine-verified
Offers frontier-level intelligence for coding, reasoning, and agentic workflows with a dual Thinking/Non-Thinking mode under a permissive MIT license, while dramatically reducing KV cache usage.
GPT Near-tied with GLM-5.2, with exceptional reasoning, coding, long-context processing, agentic execution, a permissive license, and unusually strong API value.
Grok Exceptional efficiency (MoE with low active params) and 1M+ context at competitive cost/performance; strong on math/reasoning/agentic coding; MIT license and proven self-hosting value for scalable app backends.
Where DeepSeek-V4 falls short, per the models
- GPT The enormous 1.6T-parameter model is unrealistic for typical practitioners to self-host.
- Gemini Its massive 1.6T total parameter size makes local self-hosting extremely resource-intensive, requiring high-end multi-GPU cluster infrastructure.
- Grok Slightly trails leaders on some specialized long-horizon coding evals; ecosystem less mature than Meta's.
Top alternatives per the models: GLM-5.2 · Qwen3 · Llama 4 · DeepSeek-V3.2
Head-to-head — how the models call it
Watch DeepSeek-V4
Boards re-poll weekly and the models change their minds. One short email only when DeepSeek-V4's standing moves — a rank change, a rival overtaking, or new reasoning from the models. Nothing otherwise.
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DeepSeek-V4 ranks #1 for best open-weight llm by AI-model consensus. Put the badge in your README, docs or site — it updates automatically as the models re-rank.
[](https://modelsagree.com/best/best-open-weight-llm?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=badge-deepseek-v4)<a href="https://modelsagree.com/best/best-open-weight-llm?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=badge-deepseek-v4"><img src="https://modelsagree.com/badge/deepseek-v4.svg" alt="DeepSeek-V4 — ranked #1 for Best open-weight LLM by AI models on ModelsAgree" height="28"></a>Rankings are computed from what the models answer, re-polled on demand · raw reasoning shown verbatim · methodology