Pareto 26.9 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Pareto 26.9 took 10 min 32 s and $0.34 at list price, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash took 9 min 16 s and $0.063 at list price. Pareto 26.9 took 1.1× as long and cost 5.4× as much.
Pareto 26.9
Unbiased · $7.50/M out
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek · $0.50/M out · 1,482 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a small workshop in the heart of Rotterdam, where three people spend their days elbow-deep in the guts of vintage synthesizers. We fix the machines that made the sounds you grew up with—the ones that shaped entire genres and then got left in basements when the tech moved on. But we're not a museum. Our benches are covered in solder, schematics, and the occasional broken key that's been there for two weeks longer than we'd like to admit.
We started this studio because we got tired of seeing classic gear being stripped for parts, or worse, turned into Instagram decor. These instruments deserve better. They were built to make noise, and we want to keep them doing exactly that.
Between the three of us, we've fixed everything from a 1960s Buchla to a beat-up Juno that fell down a flight of stairs. If you've got a synth that's gone quiet, bring it in. We'll bring it back.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam dedicated to the care, repair, and resurrection of vintage synthesizers. We started in a small workshop near the Maas, surrounded by oscillators, patch cables, and service manuals, because these instruments deserve more than dusty shelves and hasty fixes. Between us, we have decades of experience in electronics, sound design, and restoration, but we approach every machine with the same curiosity: listen first, trace the signal, understand the history, then bring it back to life. Whether it's a crackly filter, a dead voice card, a drifting oscillator, or a power supply that needs rebuilding, we work carefully, honestly, and with respect for original character. We also advise on maintenance, calibrate tuning and envelopes, and source hard-to-find parts when possible. At Patchbay, repair isn't just about making sound again. It's about keeping these instruments making music for decades to come.
Specs and numbers
| Pareto 26.9 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Unbiased | DeepSeek |
| Made in | — | China |
| Released | 13 Oct 2026 | 10 Sep 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.50 | $0.045 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $7.50 | $0.50 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | — | 1,482 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 32 s | 9 min 16 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.34 | $0.063 |
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was cheaper: $0.28 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash was faster: 76 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. Pareto 26.9's landing page was cut off at the output limit (12,000 tokens).