DeepSeek lists 25 models and Recursive 1. Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| DeepSeek | Recursive | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 25 | 1 |
| Models with published pricing | 24 | 1 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.45 | n/a |
| Cheapest paid model | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) ($0.08) | n/a |
| Longest context | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 (1.0M) | Recursive: Flint (free) (262K) |
| Free models | 1 | 1 |
| Newest model | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (2026-10-17) | Recursive: Flint (free) (2026-10-21) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 234 | 0 |
For each workload: the cheapest model from each provider that can actually do it (fits the context window; tool calling required for the agent), and its monthly cost at list price.
| Workload (per month) | DeepSeek | Recursive |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $6.75 with DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) | no suitable model |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $7.50 with DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) | no suitable model |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | $7.80 with DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) | no suitable model |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $4.90 with DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) | no suitable model |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $2.65 with DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) | no suitable model |
| You need | DeepSeek | Recursive |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) ($0.08) | none listed |
| With tool calling | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) ($0.08) | none listed |
| With image input | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) ($0.08) | none listed |
| With reasoning mode | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) ($0.08) | none listed |
| 128K+ context | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) ($0.08) | none listed |
| 1M+ context | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) ($0.08) | none listed |
| Model type | DeepSeek | Recursive |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 5 | 0 |
| text->text | 20 | 1 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | DeepSeek | Recursive |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 | 1 |
| Under $0.50 | 12 | 0 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 11 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
It depends on the job: DeepSeek offers the broader line-up (25 models vs 1), DeepSeek the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
DeepSeek: DeepSeek lists 25 models and Recursive lists 1.
DeepSeek: DeepSeek's longest is DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 at 1.0M tokens; Recursive's is Recursive: Flint (free) at 262K.
DeepSeek: 1 free model (e.g. DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (free)). Recursive: 1 free model (e.g. Recursive: Flint (free)).
DeepSeek: 5 of 25 models accept images. Recursive: 0 of 1.