DeepSeek V4.1 Flash pricing in 2026
What one task costs on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Per-million-token prices are hard to feel, so here are typical token counts for common jobs priced with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. Figures are USD at the rates above and exclude prompt caching and batch discounts.
| Task | Tokens (in / out) | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Code review of a 500-line pull request | 60,000 / 4,000 | $0.011 |
| Debug one failing test | 40,000 / 6,000 | $0.0096 |
| Generate a landing page in one shot | 3,000 / 30,000 | $0.018 |
| Draft a 1,200-word article | 2,000 / 2,500 | $0.0018 |
| Answer a question from a 20-page document | 25,000 / 800 | $0.0042 |
| Multi-step agent run (10 tool calls) | 250,000 / 25,000 | $0.052 |
| All of the above, once | $0.098 |
Cheaper at the same or better capability: GLM-5.3 Flash runs the same set of tasks for $0.091 instead of $0.098.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash by DeepSeek costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens — about 2.1M tokens per $1. Prices last verified 2026-09-19.
The verdict
The cheapest way to reach a mid-frontier index on this site: 40 on the current scale at $0.15 / $0.60 per 1M tokens off-peak. It is also the first DeepSeek model built on the company's Causal Encoder-Decoder architecture, and it replaces V4 Flash outright — DeepSeek retired the old name and now serves it from this model. Nothing else at this price comes close on quality.
A concrete example: sending 100,000 input tokens and getting back 20,000 output tokens with DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs about $0.03 at current prices.
Who is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash for?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a sparse mixture-of-experts model — the first built on DeepSeek's Causal Encoder-Decoder architecture — and the natural default for anyone optimising for tokens per dollar. At $0.15 per 1M input and $0.60 per 1M output off-peak it is roughly a quarter of the price of GPT-5.6 Sol while scoring 40 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, well above the median model. It also adds vision, which its predecessor lacked.
Watch the clock: peak hours (01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, Monday to Friday) are billed at double the rate, so EU and North American traffic mostly lands off-peak. The other caveat is polish — the premium tiers still win on one-shot quality and front-end design. But for bulk generation, batch jobs, extraction pipelines and agent swarms where volume dominates, it is hard to argue with the price.
Strengths & weaknesses
- Strength: Best intelligence-per-dollar on the site
- Best for: Budget, Bulk, Value, Local
- Weakness: Off-peak pricing only (peak hours are 2x) and lower one-shot reliability than the premium tiers.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash key facts
| Provider | DeepSeek pricing |
|---|---|
| Input price | $0.15 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $0.60 / 1M tokens |
| Tokens / $1 | 2.1M |
| Intelligence / $1 | 820,513 |
| Context window | 1.0M tokens |
| Tier | balanced |
| Speed | Very fast (210+ tokens/sec) |
| Intelligence index | 40 / 100 |
| Released | 2026-09-10 |
| Last verified | 2026-09-19 |
What DeepSeek V4.1 Flash delivers for your budget
For a coding workload, here is roughly what each monthly budget buys:
| Budget | Tokens / month | Months of workload |
|---|---|---|
| $20 | 78.8M | 121.2x |
| $50 | 197.0M | 303.0x |
| $100 | 393.9M | 606.1x |
Other DeepSeek models
How DeepSeek V4.1 Flash compares to its closest rivals
Rather than repeating the full catalog on every page, here are the three current models nearest to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on the intelligence index — and why you might still pick one instead:
- Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B (Qwen) — $2 input / $6 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Frontier open-weight design.
- Gemini 3.7 Flash (Gemini) — $0.75 input / $3.75 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Frontier-adjacent index at Flash price.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Gemini) — $0.75 input / $3.75 output per 1M tokens. Why you might pick it: Near-Pro quality at Flash price and speed.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash — frequently asked questions
How much does DeepSeek V4.1 Flash cost?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash by DeepSeek costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens.
How many tokens per dollar does DeepSeek V4.1 Flash give you?
On a typical 1:3 input-to-output mix, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash delivers around 2.1M tokens per dollar — an intelligence-per-dollar score of 820513.
What is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's context window?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash supports a context window of 1.0M tokens.
Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash worth it in 2026?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is DeepSeek's balanced tier model. Use the AI Intelligence Calculator to see how its value compares to every other model at your budget.