DeepSeek V4.1 Flash API Pricing
DeepSeek · context window 1M · prices updated 2026-09-29
Where DeepSeek V4.1 Flash sits on price
At $1.20 per million output tokens, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a mid tier model — 1.8× cheaper than the median output price of $2.20, which puts it cheaper than 65% and pricier than 35% of the models we track. It sits 11th cheapest of the 15 DeepSeek models we track. Output costs 4.0× input, the usual spread — trim both, starting with the answer length.
Cached input is 98% cheaper. On an input-heavy workload you need roughly a 26% cache-hit rate to take 25% off the input line — reachable for chatbots and agents that resend the same system prompt and history.
What real workloads cost on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
These three workloads are the ones teams actually run on a mid-priced model — a $1.20/1M model is not bought for the same job as one ten times the price.
| Workload | Per request | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win. | $0.0032 | $47.70 |
| Document pipeline — 10K docs/day (3K in / 500 out) Batch-friendly: no user waiting, so a ~50% batch discount usually applies. | $0.0015 | $450 |
| Long-context analysis — 200 runs/day (250K in / 4K out) Only possible on large-context models; input cost is nearly the whole bill. | $0.0798 | $479 |
Model your exact traffic in the API cost calculator — it preloads DeepSeek V4.1 Flash with caching and batch options.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash price history
DeepSeek last raised DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's output price on Sep 29, 2026 (+314% per output token), from $0.035/$0.29 to $0.3/$1.20 per 1M in/out. That is one of 5 repricings in the 19 days we have tracked it — worth knowing before you hard-code today's rate into a budget.
| Date | Input /1M | Output /1M | Output change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2026 (tracking began) | $0.15 | $0.6 | — |
| Sep 24, 2026 | $0.14 | $0.42 | -30% |
| Sep 25, 2026 | $0.15 | $0.6 | +43% |
| Sep 26, 2026 | $0.3 | $1.20 | +100% |
| Sep 27, 2026 | $0.035 | $0.29 | -76% |
| Sep 29, 2026 | $0.3 | $1.20 | +314% |
Change-points from our daily price snapshots (tracking since Sep 10, 2026; intraday moves between snapshots are not captured).
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
The closest-priced alternative from another vendor is Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking (Alibaba (Qwen)) — priced within a rounding error on output, with $0.15 less per million input tokens. When two models land this close on price, the decision is quality on your own workload, not the price sheet: run 50 real requests through both and compare.
See Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking pricing →Cheaper alternatives
More DeepSeek models
Frequently asked questions
› How much does the DeepSeek V4.1 Flash API cost?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.3 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.006 per million (98% cheaper). That works out to roughly 833,333 output tokens per dollar.
› What does the support chatbot workload cost on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash?
Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) costs about $0.0032 per request and $47.70 per month on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win.
› What does it cost to fill DeepSeek V4.1 Flash's 1M context window?
Sending 1M of input in a single request costs $0.3146 at $0.3 per million tokens — before any output. With prompt caching that same fill drops to about $0.0063 on repeat requests. This is why large context windows are cheap to advertise and expensive to actually use.
› Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash worth the price?
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash sits in the middle of the market (11 of 15 by price within DeepSeek). The honest test is a routing experiment: send the same 200 real requests to this model and to a tier below, and compare failure rate against the price gap — most teams find a majority of traffic never needed the pricier model.